A 31-year-old man is locked up in the Franklin County Jail with no chance of bail after Pennsylvania State Police say he tried to help a 15-year-old girl run away from her Guilford Township home and then actively hid her from her family and investigators. Damian Bruce Prado now faces two felony charges and a misdemeanor stemming from an incident that unfolded on Saturday, when troopers say they tracked his phone to a rural road and found the missing teen sitting inside his black Porsche SUV.
According to Tri-State Alert, Pennsylvania State Police responded to a report of a missing juvenile in Guilford Township, where the family said the 15-year-old girl had been associating with a man claiming to be in his 20s. Troopers say the teen had met Prado online several weeks before she disappeared, and investigators were able to identify him from a previous police encounter in 2024. Prado now sits in the Franklin County Jail, and the case carries the docket number MJ-39307-CR-0000219-2026.
The investigation was handled by Pennsylvania State Police at the Chambersburg barracks.
Real-Time Phone Pings Led Troopers to a Rural Road
Once the girl was entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center as a missing juvenile, per the same account, troopers used real-time cellular location data tied to Prado's known phone number to track his position into Franklin County. That trail led them to Fetterhoff Chapel Road, where they located Prado's black Porsche SUV — and the missing teen inside it.
Investigators say Prado had lied about his age to the girl and, after learning police were involved, discarded her cell phone in an apparent effort to prevent her from being found. Police allege he had formulated a plan to pick her up after she left home and leave the area with her, and that on the night in question he took her to a nearby park. Officers say he also gave the teen cigarettes and alcohol before she was recovered and returned to PSP Chambersburg for an interview.
This case underscores the stakes of moving quickly in a missing-child investigation.
Felony Charges Carry Years of Potential Prison Time
Prado was charged with felony interference with the custody of children, felony concealment of the whereabouts of a child, and misdemeanor corruption of minors. The interference charge is identified under 18 Pa.C.S. § 2904.
The corruption of minors count is graded differently. Non-sexual corruption of minors under 18 Pa.C.S. § 6301(a)(1)(i) is a first-degree misdemeanor, carrying up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for an adult who corrupts or tends to corrupt the morals of a minor, per the Zuckerman Law Firm. The charge stays a misdemeanor rather than escalating into a registrable sex offense because, under Pennsylvania's Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act, corruption of minors only becomes a felony requiring 15 years of registration when the underlying conduct involves a sexual offense charged under Chapter 31 of the Crimes Code, according to the Megan's Law Public Website. In Prado's case, the allegations center on supplying cigarettes and alcohol rather than any charged sexual contact.
No Combination of Conditions Could Guarantee Safety
A magisterial district judge denied Prado bail entirely, meaning he remains incarcerated in Franklin County Jail as the case proceeds. The ruling was an outright denial rather than a set of release conditions.
The case is being handled in Franklin County.
It remains unclear exactly how long Prado and the teen had been communicating online before he allegedly moved to pick her up. The report does not say whether additional charges will be filed as the case proceeds. The Pennsylvania State Police incident is logged under number PA 2026-1176073.
