King County Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested a 35-year-old Seattle man on Tuesday for allegedly kidnapping a 12-year-old girl from a Kent School District school after luring her through communication on Facebook.
Police in Bremerton found the Meeker Middle School student on Jan. 30, the same day she was taken from school. Detectives from the Sheriff’s Office Special Assault Unit began investigating, eventually identifying the suspect and communicating with him through a false Facebook account, according to a Sheriff’s Office media release on Thursday.
The man reportedly drove his van to Meeker Middle School, 12600 S.E. 192nd St., in unincorporated Renton but part of the Kent School District, and messaged the student, who came out and got in the van with the suspect.
Shortly after school was over, the student’s mother reported her missing. The student was located about five hours later in Bremerton at a friend’s house. She was treated at a local hospital for possible sexual assault.
Detectives using Facebook to contact the suspect, posed as a 14-year-old girl and got him to agree to give the supposed girl a phone and computer. The man agreed to meet at a Renton library, where detectives arrested him.
Detectives booked the man into the King County jail for second-degree kidnapping and commercial sex abuse of a minor.
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