Missing Teen Found with Man Arrested for Public Urination

In Louisiana, state police noticed something odd about a girl who was discovered in a car belonging to a man accused of public urination. On Saturday, officers from the St. Gabriel Police Department approached a 39-year-old man named Lionel Moore.

Moore had a previous conviction for indecency involving a juvenile back in 2005 and had failed to register as a sex offender multiple times. According to St. Gabriel Police Chief Kevin Ambaugh, when officers checked Moore’s driver’s license, they found an outstanding warrant from East Baton Rouge for not registering properly.

An officer on the scene made eye contact with the girl in the car and felt something was off. “The captain noticed her features. She looked older than her age, which was 17,” Ambaugh said. When questioned, she provided a different birthdate that corresponded with her age. The teenager then revealed she had been in a relationship with Moore for nearly three years.

Further investigation confirmed that the girl had been reported missing by her mother in 2024. The police were able to reach out to her mother, who had relocated out of state.

Officials have engaged the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services to provide assistance to the girl. Moore, on the other hand, was taken into custody based on the felony warrant against him.

Ambaugh mentioned that they are currently looking into whether the girl was a victim of sex trafficking. They are employing facial recognition technology to scan images from police body cameras and search for her in online sex trafficking databases.

Local resident Jeffrey Benn expressed his disbelief, saying, “I’ve lived here for 62 years, and I’ve never heard anything like this. It’s very troubling.”

St. Gabriel, located in south-central Louisiana, has a population of around 6,677.