A North Carolina man has been charged with a half-dozen felonies, including human trafficking and child rape, after deputies recovered a missing Texas 13-year-old in his shed.
Jorge Ivan Santos Camacho, 34, is accused of grooming the teen online, driving down to Dallas to pick her up and abducting her to Lexington, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her and kept her locked in a shed where he was living.
Dallas police had been looking for the girl and tracked her online communications to Camacho, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, which received a notification from the FBI on March 10.
“The content of the chat was consistent with grooming and enticement,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. “Video cameras in the area of the child’s home captured a suspect vehicle which was registered to an address in Davidson County.”
Authorities found the vehicle in town and pulled it over.
“During the traffic stop, it was determined that the juvenile was locked in an outbuilding on the property,” authorities said.
The sheriff’s emergency response team entered the shed and recovered the girl, who authorities said “did not appear to have any physical injuries.”
She was taken to a hospital for evaluation and then returned to her family in Texas.
A number for the property owner was disconnected Tuesday morning. She told the Dallas-Fort Worth-based FOX 4 that Camacho had been living in the shed for about two years and was friends with her son.
“I just took him in, helped him out,” she told the station. “I’m not involved with whatever he’s doing, because I didn’t know he was that kind of person.”
Camacho is being held at the Davidson County Jail in Lexington on $1.25 million bond for charges of child abduction, felonious restraint, trafficking, statutory rape of a child under 15, sex with a child under 15 and indecent liberties, all felonies.
Additional charges were pending.
