TEXAS – A 22-year-old man has been arrested and charged after deputies believe he formed a relationship with a 16-year-old girl who was reported missing in Huntsville on Tuesday.
Although the teen has now been found safe, deputies with Constable Mark Herman’s Precinct 4 Office said Nathanial Garrett Young formed a relationship with the teen through social media and allegedly picked her up from her neighborhood and left with her.
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When KPRC 2 spoke to the teen’s mother, she said her daughter left to go to the park, and when she texted to check on her, she stopped receiving a response.
“I was able to get onto some of her accounts by signing into her accounts on my phone. That’s when we found she was talking to somebody on Discord, and she had just met them yesterday in a group chat, and this man is from a different state who was homeless. She had felt bad and said, ‘Well, I feel bad. I’d like to bring you some cold water and some food, and some hygiene products.’ And he said that would be such a blessing,” the girl’s mother, Sara Meiler, said.
Meiler said she was able to track down Young’s mother on social media.
“His mother contacted me back. She was able to speak with me. Last night she said she got hold of her son. He said, ‘Yeah, I met with her daughter, but I left her there, and then her daughter walked home.’ That is not true; that did not happen. This morning, his mom called again. He and his mom, I guess, everyone in his family is estranged from him. They’re not in that good of communication, from my understanding. When she talked to him this morning, he had said, ‘Well, yeah, we were at the park and then we went for a car ride for about half an hour and then I dropped her off at home.’ That did not happen. At this time, his mom had said, ‘Well, he’s on the phone and he’s crying and he doesn’t know where she is,” Young explained.
The teen was found safely a day after being reported missing on Wednesday, Aug. 13.
Deputies said they found the teen and Young in Huntsville and arrested Young, and returned the teen to her parents.
Young has since been charged with harbouring a runaway.