Holly MatkinLexington, NC – Police found an abducted 13-year-old girl locked inside a shed 1,000 miles away from her Texas home after she met a man online who kidnapped and raped her.
The teen had been missing since March 1, CBS News reported.
Davidson County Sheriff Richie Simmons said in a press release on March 13 that his office became involved in the search for the missing girl after he was contacted by a special agent with the Texas Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Violent Crime Task Force at approximately 6 p.m. on March 10.
“Dallas Police Department was investigating a missing juvenile and with the FBI’s assistance, they were able to discover that juvenile had been communicating with an adult male through a social media chat platform,” Sheriff Simmons said. “The content of the chat was consistent with grooming and enticement.”
Surveillance cameras near the teen’s Dallas residence captured footage of a vehicle that was registered out of Davidson County, North Carolina, the sheriff noted.
The registered owner, later identified as 34-year-old Jorge Ivan Santos Camacho, was also identified as a Davidson County resident.
The DCSO and the FBI Greensboro Field Office spotted the suspect vehicle leaving the Davidson County address on Linwood Southmont Road where the car was registered, so they pulled the driver over.
“During the traffic stop, it was determined that the juvenile was locked in an outbuilding on the property,” Sheriff Simmons said.
Camacho was taken into custody just before the Davidson County Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team surrounded the home and made entry into a shed located on the property.
They found the abducted teen locked inside.
She was transported to a local hospital for a medical evaluation and was subsequently taken back to Texas.
Camacho was booked into the Davidson County Detention Center on charges of abduction of children, human trafficking, felonious restraint, two counts of statutory rape of a child under 15, two counts of statutory sex offense with a child under 15, and indecent liberties.
His bond was set at $1.25 million.
Sheriff Simmons said additional charges were expected as the investigation continued.
The woman who owned the property where the girl was found said Camacho was a friend of her son and that she had been allowing him to live in the shed on her property for the past couple of years, WFAA reported.
“I just took him in. Helped him out,” she said. “I’m not involved with whatever he’s doing because I didn’t know he was that kind of person.”
Sheriff Simmons urged parents to be vigilant regarding their children’s activities online and warned that cases like these have skyrocketed in recent years.
“Our message is going to be ‘please help us out,’” he said on Monday. “I thank God we were able to find this young girl. It may not be that case forever and what these children must go through – they don’t think… [about] who they’re talking to.”
