Authorities in Mississippi found a 13-year-old girl last week who had been reported missing in Texas back in February.
The Sheriff’s Office of Perry County, which is approximately 450 miles from her home in Houston, explained that the girl came to the authorities’ attention on April 6, per a press release.
She was spotted by a couple as she was walking along Highway 98 across from Perry Central High School in New Augusta. Believing that something was amiss, the couple alerted the authorities.
Responding to the scene, deputies found the girl at a residence off Highway 98.
After confirming that she was the missing Texas girl, the authorities took her to the hospital for a medical check-up before turning her over to Perry County Child Protective Services.
A 27-year-old man identified by police as Jessie Thomas Patton was detained in connection with the case the following day.
Further investigation by the authorities revealed that Patton had likely met the girl while in Houston for work in February, per Fox News. Subsequently, he allegedly brought her to his home in Mississippi.
Although Patton reportedly transported the girl across state lines, the Perry County Sheriff’s Office cannot charge Patton with trafficking since there was no exchange of money or other materials involved.
Instead, Patton has been charged with kidnapping and sexual battery.
He is currently being held in the Perry County jail on a $250,000 bond set by Perry County Judge Tim Odom, per the sheriff’s office’s press release.
“It’s definitely a dangerous situation for a missing 13-year-old from Texas to end up all the way over here in Mississippi,” Sheriff Mitch Nobles told reporters, per Fox News.
He added that it was important to “make the community aware” and urged residents, “especially young females, to be very careful and not put themselves in this kind of situation.”
The investigation into the alleged kidnapping has been turned over to Houston Police Department, per the sheriff’s office’s press release.
Another teenage girl from Little Elm was allegedly kidnapped by a 58-year-old truck driver named Richard S. Laird in February, as The Dallas Express reported. After she was recovered by the authorities, Laird was charged with one count of aggravated kidnapping as well as nine counts of sexual assault of a child.
The chance of being kidnapped in the Houston metropolitan area reaches a high of 1 in 3,481 in certain neighborhoods, per CrimeGrade. This is even higher than that seen in Dallas, which carries a risk of 1 in 6,709 in its southeastern neighborhoods.
Nonetheless, plagued by staffing shortages and a surge in violent crime, Dallas Police Department has struggled to respond to the needs of protection of those living in the city, as The Dallas Express reported.
While trailing the number of general assaults (4,069) seen citywide since the start of the year, there have been 171 sex offenses logged in the Dallas crime analytics dashboard.