A missing 13-year-old girl from Texas was recently found locked in a shed in North Carolina, authorities reported on Monday. Texas law enforcement collaborated with the FBI to find and bring the young girl to safety. Allegedly, a 34 year-year-old man, Jorge Ivan Santos Camacho, had been communicating with the girl on the internet and convinced her to run away from home. Santos allegedly picked her up in his vehicle and transported her over 1,000 miles across the country. The New York Post reported:
Jorge Ivan Santos Camacho, 34, was charged with abduction, felonious restraint, human trafficking, statutory rape, statutory sex offense, and “indecent liberties,” referring to sexual servitude, WGHP reported.
Dallas police and the FBI said Camacho picked the teen up in his vehicle and drove her to his property in Lexington, NC, about an hour north of Charlotte, where she was found in the small shed, Davidson County Sheriff Richie Simmons said, according to WFAA.
“They discovered that the juvenile had been communicating with an adult male through social media chat platforms,” Davidson County Sheriff Richie Simmons said. “The content of the chat was consistent with grooming and enticement, and he enticed her to leave home where he picked her up in the (Dallas) area,” he added. See news footage of the event below.
Surveillance footage near the girl’s home captured Camachos vehicle where they were able to obtain his license plate. A Texas Violent Crimes Task Force special agent then contacted the local North Carolina sheriff’s department in Davidson County where the vehicle was registered. “Within 10 minutes our guys had eyes on that residence,” Capt. Stephanie Murphy told reporters. “Everything moved fairly quickly after that.” The Daily Caller reported:
Law enforcement found Camacho’s vehicle and conducted a traffic stop after he left the home. It was during the stop that investigators realized the child was locked inside of a shed at a Lexington property. She was found and taken into a local area hospital for a medical evaluation, before being returned to Texas.
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The victim’s mother told reporters that the two chatted for months on a Discord server after they met while playing an online video game. “It was very stressful and scary,” the mother said. “We were hoping to see her again and thank God that was the case. We’re going to work together, get as much help as we can and grow stronger.” The mother warned other parents about the risks of allowing children to use the internet unsupervised, “We knew the risks, and we talked with her about them. But still this happened, it was something awful. It could have been a lot worse. It could have, and we’re lucky that it wasn’t.”
The Sheriff of Davidson county had a message for all parents, “Our message is going to be please help us out. I’m very thankful, I than God that 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 who they are talking to. ”
Note: Featured image is screenshot from embedded video.
