A Jacksonville woman says she had a close call about four years ago with Donald Smith, the man accused of abducting and murdering 8-year-old Cherish Perriwinkle from a Jacksonville Wal-Mart on Friday night.

Stephanie Thornton believes her suspicions saved her daughter from becoming a victim. She said that in 2009, her family got a call from someone claiming to be with the Department of Children and Families. The man claimed Thornton's daughter had been raped and the agency needed to speak with her.

"He contacted her grandmother and told her that she needed to meet him at McDonald's to pick her up and take her to be checked," Thornton said.

Thornton didn't believe it, though, and called police. They later arrested Smith and charged him with making the call.

Smith, a registered sex offender recently released from jail, was charged with murder Saturday in the death of Perriwinkle, who had been shopping with her mother.

Authorities said Smith, 56, befriended Charish and her mother at a dollar store, and "offered to take them to Wal-Mart and buy her family some clothes," Mike Williams of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said.

"They appeared to be down on their luck and he could help them out."

After spending a couple hours inside the Wal-Mart together, Smith offered to buy hamburgers and walked with Cherish to the front of the store. Instead of stopping to buy the snack, Smith walked Cherish outside and the two of them got into his van, Williams said.

The girl's mother called 911 when she realized Cherish and Smith were missing. An Amber Alert was issued, and a tip about a suspicious van spotted in the woods near a church led investigators to Cherish's body Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, an officer working at the scene of a traffic crash on Interstate 95 on Saturday morning recognized Smith's van as it drove past her and called it in.

The highway was shut down while other officers pulled Smith over and arrested him.

Thornton said her daughter is still haunted by her own ordeal and that she never leaves her sight. Thornton also said she wishes Smith had never been allowed out of jail and in a position to harm another child.