A 12-year-old Florida girl stole her father’s car and drove her 14-year-old friend to meet a predator they were conversing with online in Louisiana, according to the New York Post.
Jade Gregory, of Union County, was reported missing last week after she got into her parent’s Ford Taurus, went to meet her friend Khloe Larson, then drove out of state.
The girls had been communicating online with an unknown person and agreed to meet him in Louisiana.
Their sudden disappearance triggered a Missing Child Alert, and their pictures were flashed across billboards and television screens across several Southern states.
Gregory drove her father’s truck all the way from the Gainesville area to Mobile, Alabama.
Authorities said they were not accompanied by an adult during their journey and they had voluntarily left their homes.
The girls were later shocked to see their images on a television in an Alabama convenience store and eventually decided to turn themselves in to local police.
According to the news outlet, the FBI is looking into a person whom the teenagers were planning to meet.
They are investigating whether the children were enticed by a sex trafficker. Both girls arrived safely at their homes.
The FBI is involved in the shocking case and are investigating a person they believe the two girls were planning to meet.
The kids have been safely returned to their families in Florida, police said.
Law enforcement agencies have ramped up efforts to warn parents about the danger of online predators and urged diligent monitoring of their online activities.
Authorities are investigating if the runaways were lured by a possible child sex trafficker.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there were 19,000 reports of child sex trafficking across the nation in 2022.
