A 36-year-old Missouri man has been charged with a felony of recklessly endangering other people’s lives after his roommate and on-again, off-again lover discovered he was HIV-positive. David Mangum, who lives in the small community of Dexter, was charged in Stoddard County Circuit Court in southeastern Missouri. Magnum is jailed on a $250,000 cash-only bond. A preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 26.
Little is known about Mangum. He moved to Dexter (pop: 7,823) two years ago from Dallas where he had convictions for prostitution, indecent exposure and public lewdness and worked at a grocery store in Mills, Mo. but little else is known. Reports indicated that as many as 60 people were infected after he arrived in Missouri from Texas.
Many of his trysts stemmed from Craigslist ads, Mangum told investigators, and he would meet up with men at parks, truck stops and other remote locations. Police believe many were truckers or others passing through the region, and because Mangum had little information about many of the men, investigators are concerned about finding potential victims, Dexter police detective Cory Mills said. “First names with no phone numbers or addresses – that’s going to be a challenge,” Mills said.
And, according to a report in the Southeast Missourian, requests for HIV tests have shot up since news of Mangum’s arrest went public. Lindsey Craft, coordinator for primary health care at the (neighboring) Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center, said they also are seeing a “definite increase” in testing. “In the past few weeks, I would say we’ve seen about a 50 percent increase,” she said. “And we’re getting a lot of phone calls about ‘should I be tested’ and the types of testing we do.” The Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center averages about 15 HIV screenings per month.
When asked by police investigators why he had so much unprotected sex without telling his partners, Mangum, who was diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in 2003, was reported to have said he feared people would reject him if they knew.
