A man is in custody following a distressing situation early Sunday when he allegedly kidnapped a 12-year-old girl from Bountiful, Utah, after meeting her on social media. According to FOX 13, the incident resulted in family members confronting the suspect, described as being in his 20s, before he fled with the young girl in his vehicle.
The situation quickly escalated as the suspect led police on a harrowing chase, the gravity of the act weighing heavily on the family the child abducted before their eyes; parents finding their daughter with a stranger, a Chevrolet Camaro speeding away with their world aboard a wave of reckless abandon and terror, until authorities managed to bring the perpetrator into custody. Lieutenant Dave Edwards from the Bountiful Police Department said, "You don’t know if you’re going to see your child again," as obtained by KSL NewsRadio.
The police reported that the suspect and the girl had interacted through social media, which led to their in-person encounter. Sergeant Gary Smith commented on the frequency of such situations, saying, "The police department deals a lot with kids meeting up with strangers they meet online," as per KUTV. The suspect's abduction of the 12-year-old girl was not a family-related incident, emphasizing the peril of such stranger-initiated abductions.
"After the family came out to see why their daughter was outside for so long, they found her inside of a car with this male the male took off with the 12-year-old female inside the car," Smith expounded, as KUTV reports. The Bountiful Police Department is currently conducting a thorough investigation and is in the process of positively identifying the suspect before any further details are released to the public.
