A missing 13-year-old girl from Texas was found locked in a shed in North Carolina, authorities said Monday.
Dallas law enforcement and the FBI worked in tandem to identify Jorge Van Santos Camacho, 34, who allegedly talked the child into leaving her home via social media, Davidson County Sheriff Richie Simmons said at a press conference on Monday. From there, the man allegedly picked her up in his vehicle, which was caught on surveillance cameras near the child’s home.
A Texas FBI Violent Crimes Task Force special agent contacted the sheriff’s department in North Carolina on Friday with the van’s registration address, located in Davidson County, more than 1,000 miles from the child’s home. “Within 10 minutes our guys had eyes on that residence,” Capt. Stephanie Murphy told reporters. “Everything moved fairly quickly after that.”
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.
Camacho faces charges of human trafficking, two counts of statutory rape, two counts of statutory sex offense, indecent liberties, felony restraint of a child and abduction. (RELATED: REVEALED: ‘Say Hi To Snow White’: JP Morgan Exec Emailed Jeffrey Epstein Post-Imprisonment)
Law enforcement and news anchors covering the story have asked parents to be far more cautious when allowing their children on social media.