A 13-year-old Edmonton girl who had been missing for more than a week has been found safe in Oregon, where a 41-year-old man has been arrested by police.
On Saturday morning, the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) announced that following an international investigation, law enforcement had arrested the man near Portland and that the girl had been taken to a children’s hospital as a precaution.
Family members were notified early Saturday that the missing youth had been found, and her parents had already left for Portland.
The girl, who is no longer being identified because she is a victim of a crime, disappeared on June 24 after taking the bus to her junior high school. Her parents were later informed that she had not attended any classes in the evening.
“This has been an intensive investigation from the beginning,” said EPS Insp. Brent Dalside.
Dahlseide, head of Edmonton’s Major Crimes Unit, said investigators were assisted by Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams, RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, FBI, US Customs and Border Patrol, Oregon City Police and the Gladstone Police.
The man suspected in the girl’s disappearance, who is from Oregon, is not being named by police until charges are filed.
According to Dahlseide, the pending child luring charges stem from evidence collected by EPS, with additional charges expected to be brought by US law enforcement.
“As this investigation progresses, with the support of our child protection section, I expect there will be numerous charges that will be filed in connection with this,” Dalseide said.
“It’s a happy ending to an investigation that has been exhaustive, a very difficult week and for family and friends not knowing where (she) is,” he added.
In a social media post, the girl’s father said family members were “full of happiness and love,” thanking community members for their efforts to raise awareness of his missing daughter.
COLLECTION OF THE MOVES
Although the girl was found safe, Dahlseide said the investigation to uncover all the details of the incident is ongoing.
“This is a unique investigation as we don’t have many cases like this where we cross international borders,” Dahlseide said.
“It’s unique enough to go from province to province, but to facilitate something like this in the United States through our partners, there’s something that’s unique and requires a very coordinated effort.”
It is not known how the girl crossed the border into the US and how long the 41-year-old had been in contact with her online before that.
When asked why an Amber Alert was not issued, Dahlseide said the criteria for an alert were not met, with investigators only having a description of a potential suspect vehicle on Friday.
At that point, EPS was preparing an alert when it was notified the man was no longer in Canada, making the alert “no longer possible,” said Staff Sgt. James Vanderland of the EPS Historical Crimes Unit.
Investigators believe the man was in Edmonton, but are still trying to track his complete movements across Canada and out of the country.
“We as an investigative team will learn more in the coming days here,” Dalseide said.
Const. Paul Walker of the Abbotsford Police Department confirmed to CTV News that EPS was contacted on Friday, indicating the girl may have been at a fast food restaurant there.
“Our first line officers attended this location and obtained surveillance video from the business confirming that the girl and the suspect were in the restaurant,” Walker said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the girl and the suspect had already left this location prior to police arrival.”
Dahlseide thanked the public for all tips provided to law enforcement to assist in the investigation.
“As the investigation progressed, we received countless alerts from across Canada,” he said.
“I’d rather have 200 that we had to sift through and give 199 of them away so we could find one, then get zero tips and literally have nowhere to go.”
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jessica Robb and Stephen Dyer
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