A 13-year-old South Carolina girl was found 1,300 miles from her home with a man she met online. according to to Florida police.
The girl was reported missing from her home in Simpsonville on Sunday, the chief said. Jeremy Holt of the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office. She was last seen around 8:30 that night.
On Tuesday, she was found in a Dodge Ram pickup truck in the parking lot of the Pink Plaza Shopping Center in Key Largo around 3:30 a.m.
Officials said Tyler Michael Barrick, 35, drove her from South Carolina to Florida after meeting her through online chat and gaming apps. Police said Barrick first contacted the girl a year before the alleged kidnapping, when she was about 11 or 12 years old.
“We knew right away that he was not her father or any of her relatives,” Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsey said. Miami Herald.
They arrested Barrick and charged him with kidnapping. Holt said he is awaiting extradition to South Carolina while in the custody of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
When authorities arrested Barrick in the parking lot, the girl became agitated and threatened to harm herself, Ramsey said.
“This will probably affect her for the rest of her life,” he added.
The girl was placed in a child shelter for mental health services before being transferred to South Carolina.
Mr. Barrick lived in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, about 1,300 miles from his home in South Carolina and about 2,500 miles from Florida.
The girl was listed as a fugitive by the National Crime Information Center before police found her with Bellick.
Experts are warning parents to monitor their children’s online activities to prevent exposure to predators.
The arrests are as follows:
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