On March 8, a 13-year-old girl from Roosevelt, Utah, was reported missing to the authorities.
The Utah Internet Crimes Against Children task force, the FBI, the State Bureau of Investigations, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office worked together to try to find the teenager quickly.
An investigation was opened. The police reported that they found the girl had been talking to someone for about a month with the Oculus VR platform that connects to Facebook. They became suspicious of the relationship.
The police reached out to the young girl’s friends to see if they knew anything about her disappearance. Her friends let them know that they believed she had been talking to a 25-year-old and orchestrated a plan to leave home with him.
Using the information they collected, the authorities believed 25-year-old Chris Evans was the suspect they were seeking.
Police reported that they read a message sent to the girl from an account they believe belongs to Evans saying, “I’m waiting.”
The law enforcement agencies tried to contact him.
While they were unsuccessful in speaking to the man, they were able to track down his approximate location using digital means.
Just after 3:30 PM on March 10, within one hour of asserting that Evans was who they were seeking, police saw a white semi-truck that they believed was Evans’ at a truck stop in Wyoming. The location was reported as being approximately 400 miles from the girl’s home in Utah.
When they talked to the man, Evans allegedly said the girl they were seeking was in the back of the truck.
Evans was taken into custody and incarcerated for suspicion of kidnapping and harboring a runaway.
The authorities reported that the teen did not appear to have been harmed and seemed to be in good health.
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