Police have made an arrest in connection with the disappearance of a 12-year-old girl who went missing in February and was believed to have been trafficked.
Officers with the Columbus Police Department arrested Sirterryon Preston outside Houston on Friday and charged him with attempting to traffic the young girl.
KPRC 2 reported that witnesses saw Preston delivering chips to a Shell gas station in Columbus when a large number of police officers attempted to arrest him. A post on Facebook by Columbus police states that Preston initially attempted to flee, but he was quickly apprehended. He currently stands charged with evading arrest, but police say additional charges are likely after an investigation by the FBI is completed.
“The missing juvenile’s identity was confirmed and she was taken to Texas Children’s Hospital for evaluation,” police wrote.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the girl disappeared from her Missouri City home on February 22. Authorities have revealed few details about the investigation, but it is believed that E’minie Hughes met the suspect through a dating app called Tagged.
Hughes was seen leaving her mother’s home and getting into a dark-colored pickup truck in the early morning hours on the day she disappeared. She was found “unharmed” in Columbus on March 1, according to a post on X by Houston police.
CNN reported that The Meet Group, the parent company of the app believed to have been used by the girl and the suspect, said they had assisted investigators.
“Our terms and conditions prohibit minors from using our apps, and we utilize both technology and manual analysis to help check for minors who may have registered for our platform using a false age,” the company said. “Should we be made aware of any attempts to circumvent our process, we thoroughly investigate any report involving a possible minor user or child exploitation.”
The Dallas Express reported that Texas lawmakers passed a series of laws in 2023 that enhanced penalties for individuals convicted of trafficking and grooming of minors.
Relatedly, the latest data from the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard shows that seven instances of human trafficking and 21 kidnappings were reported this year as of March 1.
Dallas police are currently understaffed, fielding only around 3,000 officers in spite of a City report advising that roughly 4,000 are necessary to properly maintain public safety. The City’s budget allocation for the Dallas Police Department this fiscal year was only $654 million, considerably less than other cities with high crime rates, such as Los Angeles and New York City.
