HE WORKED AT AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. DEPUTIES SAY HE TARGETED ELDERLY WOMEN.
By Staff Reports
WILDWOOD — By day, he worked at an elementary school. Now a Sumter County school employee sits in jail without bond, accused of sexually assaulting elderly women in retirement communities near The Villages, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
Nicholas James McCray, 45, a physical education paraprofessional at Wildwood Elementary School, was arrested on October 31, 2026. He is charged with sexual battery, burglary with battery, aggravated stalking, and loitering and prowling. He is being held without bond.
Deputies say the investigation began on October 22, when an 83-year-old woman at the Village of Lynnhaven reported a sexual battery. According to the sheriff’s office, the woman installed a doorbell camera after the reported attack, and deputies say the camera captured McCray returning to the area days later.
Investigators have also linked the accused to similar incidents reported in 2025 at Carriage House Gracious Retirement Living in Wildwood, deputies say. Detectives are continuing to review those earlier reports as part of the same investigation, which now spans more than a year of alleged incidents in the area. The arrest came nine days after the most recent report, following the doorbell-camera footage that deputies say helped identify the accused.
The sheriff’s office has stated there is no indication of any improper contact with children, and the allegations involve adult victims in nearby retirement communities, not students at the school where the accused worked.
The case has rattled two communities at once: parents in the Wildwood school district, and residents of the retirement neighborhoods where the attacks are alleged to have occurred. All of the charges remain allegations, and McCray is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
The sheriff’s office investigation is continuing.
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Sources: Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, via FOX 35 Orlando and News 6 (WKMG)