Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - BREAKING: MISSING ELLA,14, HELD BY CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER 3 WEEKS FOUND

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

As the public becomes aware of Ella Jones's disappearance, the Mount Vernon Police Department receives information on a possible suspect's identity. The person was already said to be a male named "Keith" possibly. Investigators also determined that Ella Jones may have used a "RideShare" service when she left her home. RideShare services are not prevalent in Ella Jones' area, so Mount Vernon Police were able to narrow the search and locate a rideshare Jones may have used. Investigators identified a man named "Keith" who ordered a ride share for Ella and his address in South Haven Michigan. The FBI reaches out to Van Buren County Michigan Sherrif's department about a possible suspect named Keith Freerksen with an address in South Haven Michigan possibly being involved in the disappearance of a 14-year-old girl in Mt Vernon, Washington.   Van Buren County Sheriff Daniel Abbott says his detectives investigated the possible suspect location and identified the car suspected of transporting the 14-year-old girl 2,000 miles from Washington to Michigan. After obtaining a search warrant, Sheriff  Abbott says they waited for the suspect vehicle to return to the property before executing the search warrants. Sheriff  Abbott says as the detectives watched the property, they noticed there were three homes on the property and several people were seen in the residences. The suspect was identified as one of the people in one of the residences on the property.  Detectives coordinate with the local uniformed police officers in marked cars to roll in with them and execute the search warrant. Having executed the search warrant, all individuals on the property were separated so detectives could begin the interview process. The suspect immediately told detectives the 14-year-old girl was there on the property. Once the suspect was read his Miranda rights, he lawyered up and stopped talking The suspect is 30-year-old Keith Freerksen, a convicted sex offender. Sheriff Daniel Abbott says the Freerksen spoke with and groomed the victim online over an extended period before she took a ride share to the suspect's home in Michigan. Keith Freerksen was arraigned on nine charges: two counts of trafficking a minor, three counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a minor, one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, one count of accosting a child for immoral purposes, and two counts of using a computer to commit a crime. He faces up to life in prison if convicted. Joining Nancy Grace Today: Sarah Merrill -  Ella Jones’s mother   Eric Faddis – Partner at Varner Faddis Elite Legal, Former Felony Prosecutor and Current Criminal Defense and Civil Litigation Attorney; Instagram: @e_fad @varnerfaddis; TikTok: @varnerfaddis  Dr. Shari Schwartz – Forensic Psychologist (Specializing in Capital Mitigation and Victim Advocacy); Author: “Criminal Behavior” and “Where Law and Psychology Intersect: Issues in Legal Psychology;” Twitter: @TrialDoc”  Lieutenant Dave Shackleton - Mount Vernon Police Department; FB: mvpdwa  Bill Garcia – Licensed Private Investigator, “Bill Garcia Investigative Services;” Facebook: Bill Garcia Investigative Services Anna Sonoda – Child Grooming Expert, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and Author: “Duck Duck Groom: Understanding How a Child Becomes a Target” Allie Jennerjahn  - Anchor/Reporter for WWMT-TV News Channel 3; X:@AllieWWMT, Facebook - Allie Jennerjahn WWMT  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. In the last hours, a little girl who's just turned 14 years old has been found. Where has she been? With a registered sex predator thousands of miles away from home. That's right. A registered sex offender who was trading child porn online engineered a kidnap of a 14-year-old Washington State girl and held her for weeks. Joining us, her mother detailing her desperate search for Ella.

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Crime Stories and on Sirius XM 111. Thousands of miles away from home with a registered sex offender, a little girl who's just turned 14 with a guy that peddles child porn online. It's every parent's worst nightmare. But this time, this time, unlike so many other stranger on stranger child abductions, Ella lived. Listen to this. Detectives observed several individuals on the property inside residences as there were three homes on the property detectives did confirm the suspect was in one of the residences detectives had the local police agency which were in uniforms and marked cars roll in with them and execute the search warrant once the search warrant was executed all

individuals were then separated so that the detectives could start the interview process. The suspect immediately said she was there to the detectives that was talking to him. However, once they read Miranda, he lawyered up right away and wouldn't speak anymore. With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now in addition to Miss Merrill. This is Ella's mom. Miss Merrill, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me again. Miss Merrill, finding Ella was not only the answer to so many millions of prayers across our country, but it is also rare in a stranger on stranger child abduction where the child has been gone for weeks. We rarely get this kind of good news. And I want to hear, and everyone wants to hear, what went through your mind

when you learned Ella had been found and she's alive? I just broke down into tears. I'm still, to be honest, in a state of shock. I'm not really sure how to process things. There's a lot of things just spinning around in your mind and a lot of questions. Those can wait. Right now, I'm just focused on hugging her and having her back and trying to figure out what our next steps are. I in no way want to jeopardize the ongoing investigation and prosecution of the kidnapper. But please tell us what you can. How did you find out Ella had been found? I got a call from the detective here in Washington saying that Michigan had gone in and recovered her and she was safe.

Did you have any idea she was in Michigan? We had our suspicions. I was waiting very impatiently for about a day to figure out if, uh, those leads were, um, in fact, correct and what was going to happen at that point. After knowing that we were looking in that direction and had a fairly confident, um, suspect in mind to look for it was really in the police's hand and I just had to sit and wait, which was really difficult. Yes, it's mind-boggling. Also joining us in addition to Ella's mother is Lieutenant Dave Shackleton with the Mount Vernon PD, part of this investigation. Lieutenant,

thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me. Just thinking about how you guys managed to facilitate tracking down a missing 14-year-old girl. Can you believe this guy, a registered sex offender, was under no supervision anymore after peddling child porn and he can jump up and get on discord and meet a 14 year old little girl and orchestrate kidnapping her. What were your thoughts during the investigation? Yeah, we were very concerned all along. You know, anytime somebody goes missing and then cuts off all contact at all with family and friends. And then ultimately to find out that the suspect had sex offender history and what their provisions were are hard to know because it was so far away. But very, very disturbing when we heard who the offender was.

Tell me something. Exactly how far away was Ella from home? More than 2,000 miles across several states. I don't want you to be on the hot seat. I know you can't reveal a lot of the facts, but anything you can tell us, Lieutenant Shackleton, please do so other parents can hear what's going on. The mom had no idea her little girl was 2,000 miles away with a child pornographer. Were they alone in the car during the 2,000-mile drive, Lieutenant? Do we know that? That's not something I can say definitively.

Okay. No investigation isn't over, and we're continuing to follow up, trying to gather as much information we can, along with the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office, as to what occurred between here and there. Ms. Merrill, when you realized Ella was gone, you immediately, of course, reported her missing and went out looking for yourself. You could not just sit at home and wait for something to happen. You went out looking and one of the first places you went was to her

friend's home. And it was there that you first heard the name Keith. And it's amazing to me this guy was such an idiot that he went online with his real name. But thank God that he did, because you were able to relay that name to police. Yeah, it wasn't until we were able to track down more information that everything was able to fall into place. We definitely needed more links to have the puzzle go together. And it is frustrating to know some of those pieces we had had within a couple of days. Um, and so looking back being like, I saw that, or I, you know what I mean? I just didn't understand that, how it connected to anything. Um, so that's a little frustrating, but I can't really spend time being frustrated about that because like you said, I, I don't even understand how she's in one piece. It's amazing to me. It's, it's incredible and

wonderful that you were able to provide police so much information, whether it made sense at the time or not. What were you doing when the call came to tell you Ella had been found. I was trying to focus on what our next steps were. And I mean, I had a very strong support group who were helping me from all over. I had family in Australia and Europe and all over the United States doing stuff on the Internet. I mean, what were you actually doing? Were you cleaning the kitchen? Were you washing dishes? What were you doing? I was trying to get, the group and I were making plans on how we could move flyers into different areas and spread across different highways. We

were still looking for, because until I had any confirmation, I didn't want to give up. I didn't want to not be doing that while we didn't have 100% confirmation of whether we had found her or not. Joining us is Allie Jennerjohn, anchor reporter for WWMT-TV News Channel 3. Allie, thank you for being with us. Tell me about your discovery that Ella had been found alive. Yeah, so we actually gratefully have sister stations across the country, and we have one located in Seattle, Michigan. So we were kind of working together. And at the time I was in a courtroom covering a different case and I saw the sheriff walk in and he spoke with the prosecutor and then the

prosecutor made a note that, you know, she needed to take a break the next day around noon to do a press conference on, you know, a case that was a national level. So I immediately texted the sheriff and he's like, you know, I can't tell you anything, but I know that this is a big story. You guys are going to want to be here. Like, please don't ask me any more questions. And then our sister station put out a story about the victim being found. And we knew like we had to get ready. This is what the story is going to be about.

So we started digging into the suspect, made a plan to be there the next day, and that's when they made the official confirmed announcement that she had been found and located in our CMA. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You know, if you divide 2,000 by 24 hours, that is quite a trek. The two of them alone on the way from home, where Ella is from, all the way to where the registered sex offender lived. And we're also learning that other people live there as well. Take a listen to Sheriff Abbott. Additional family members did cooperate with our detectives on the victim's location on the property.

They also confirmed to our detectives that she had been there for approximately three weeks. Once detectives found out her location, they went and entered the structure and located the victim immediately. The investigation continued and the victim was taken into protective custody and turned over to CPS. How did those family members not know a little girl was being held in their compound. I understand, Lieutenant Shackleton, there were several residences there together, maybe three. That's my understanding from the report that Van Buren gave us. Wow. Okay, it reminds me of a beautiful little girl named Jessica Lunsford. Listen. Mark Lunsford arrives home from work at 6 a.m. and hears the alarm going off in his daughter's bedroom.

So he goes to turn it off and make sure his 9-year-old daughter Jessica is up and getting ready for school. Jessica isn't in the bedroom. Mark Lunsford searches the house, but Jessica has vanished. Reporting her missing, police and volunteers begin searching immediately. Jessica was last seen around 10 p.m. the night before when her grandparents put her to bed, and the only thing missing from her bedroom is her favorite stuffed dolphin. Police interview area registered sex offenders and search their homes. John Cooey is a 46-year-old sex offender who lives about 100 yards from the Lunsford home. Deputies visit Cooey four times and talk to him, but they never ask to go inside. And more. John Cooey leaves the area

shortly after Jessica disappeared and heads to Georgia. Police track him down and interview him. He claims he's looking for a job. Cooey had been living with his sister in a trailer near the Lunsford home, and Cooey's sister gives investigators permission to search her home. Police find a blood-stained mattress and pillows in Cooey's closet. DNA from Cooey and Jessica Lunsford is found on the mattress. John Cooey confesses to kidnapping the nine-year-old in the middle of the night from her own bedroom, bringing her back to his room and raping her. While police and volunteers searched outside, Cooey keeps Jessica Lunsford hidden in a closet for several days before tricking the little girl into getting into a garbage bag by telling her he's taking her home.

Cooey then buries Jessica alive in his yard about 150 yards from her own home. Jessica dies from suffocation inside the garbage bags, clutching her prized purple dolphin. So how did Cooey's sister and people coming in and out of the house not realize this is a mobile home? There's a little girl being held there and raped repeatedly and then buried alive. How does that happen? I recall a dad who was joining me on air about his missing son. Does the name Charles Bothell ring a bell? Listen. Charlie's reported missing by his parents and Detroit police and volunteers begin searching immediately. The case gains national attention, and after Charlie has been missing 11 days,

Nancy Grace picks up the story, and Charlie Bethel's father is actually on the air with Nancy Grace when Nancy tells him his son has been found alive. Little Charlie Bethel was found imprisoned in the family basement. Video of the on-air incident goes viral. Little Charlie is saved and his parents face multiple charges. Out to the father of the missing 12-year-old boy, Charlie. With me is his father, Charlie Bethel.

Charlie, we're getting reports that your son has been found in your basement. Sir? Mr. Bothel, are you... What? Yeah, we are getting reports that your son has been found alive in your basement. What? Yes, that's what... If you can hand me that wire very quickly yeah we're getting that right now from from yeah how could your son be alive in your basement I have I have, I have no idea. So how do people not realize a child is being held in their own home?

Joining me is Eric Faddis, partner, Varner Faddis Elite Legal, former felony prosecutor. You can find him at VarnerFaddis.com. Eric, do you buy for one minute that these people involved here in standing by and seeing Ella there with a registered sex offender, they knew who he was and they did nothing. Do you think they should escape prosecution? Because I don't. Yeah, Nancy, it boggles the mind to suggest that these family members didn't know

a strange 14-year-old girl was in their house with their sex offender relative. It doesn't pass the smell test. And in Colorado, at least, there's a law that criminalizes harboring a runaway. And I've got to believe Michigan has a corollary. I've got to believe law enforcement is looking into that. Miss Merrill, when did you find out that the suspect was actually a registered sex offender? When we identified the suspect before we had confirmation, I was able to do some internet searching and realized that the suspect was in fact

had previous crimes associated and was on the registry. So you found that part out, that piece of the puzzle through your own searches, correct? Yes, and then through the assistance of Bill Garcia as well. To Lieutenant Dave Shackleton from Mount Vernon PD, who worked on this case, again, congratulations. It's kind of bittersweet to say congratulations. I felt the same way whenever I would get a guilty verdict, Lieutenant, people would say congratulations. And I understand their kind sentiment, but it was always after a felony crime, a rape, a child molestation, a murder. So it's kind of hard to take congratulations under those circumstances. But I still congratulate you and all the LE that worked on this case because Ella's alive. And you know the stats as

well as I do, Lieutenant. The longer he kept Ella, the more likely she would meet physical harm, serious physical harm, as in murder, to get rid of evidence. But I'm curious, Lieutenant Shackleton, people just standing around, they know this girl doesn't belong there. They know this guy is a child pornographer. He's a registered sex offender. Yet they do nothing. I bet you see that every day. People who do nothing. Yeah, Nancy was definitely bittersweet knowing that she was found.

But, yeah, she was there for three weeks with him. And we sure would have liked to have that information earlier and that you know he was with a registered sex offenders very disturbing do we know the configuration alley jenner john were they three houses side by side were they connected what type of a compound was this yeah and i think that's great perspective too and part of the reason why me and my photographer actually went to the property and walked up, you know, the driveway to find out a little more. So if you, you can see it from the road,

but it definitely is kind of back in the woods. So we walked down the driveway, we can see three structures there and a shed. One looks like a home that's very livable in. It's the first one I knock on, I knock on the door. And keep in mind, we're just coming out of watching his arraignment. So in the ar one I knock on. I knock on the door and keep in mind, we're just coming out of watching his arraignment. So in the arraignment, his public defender said, you know,

he has been living with his dad for the past four years. That's the information we had. So going there thinking, you know, the dad, as far as we know, hasn't been arrested yet. Potentially he'll come to the door. I knock on the door, wait a few seconds, maybe a full minute. And an older woman comes to the door, and she says, what do you want? And I said, you know, there was an arrest that happened here, just looking for more information to see if, you know, family members all live in these structures. And she just said, I know nothing about an arrest. I say, okay. So I walk away. I knock on the other doors.

No response. I mean, I guess they didn't really look like people had been living in them. The one that the woman came to looked like where most people might live. So that was all we got from the property and we walked away and that was all we got. Just an older woman is all we communicated with. So basically the suspect lied. He was not living there with family, including his father. Question, the other two structures, did they look livable? You said three structures and a shed. One of them looked like it was under construction and that there was definitely, I could see

through the windows, you know, you could go in and out of it. I did not see inside of it though. And then the other one, I didn't end up even knocking on the door because I could see inside of it. And it looks like from the ground that maybe no one was living in there. Perhaps you could go in it. But I guess from my own opinion, it didn't look like anyone was living there. Which indicates to me that he, the suspect, Keith Daniel Frickson, had the little girl in the structure where the woman came to the door. I'm deducing that.

I don't know that. Nobody's told me that. Lieutenant Shackleton didn't spill the beans, which makes it, in my mind, even worse. How could they not know? Joining me, Dr. Sherry Schwart, forensic psychologist who specializes in forensic psychology and criminal behavior at PantherMitigation.com. Dr. Sherry, thank you for being with us. What is a phenomenon? And I'm going to follow this up with Lieutenant Shackleton.

Dr. Sherry Schwartz, have you ever seen the long-running TV show Cops? Have you ever seen that? Of course. Okay. In many episodes, the cops storm into a home and they run through the den to go to the back of the home to make an arrest. And there's a guy just sitting there in the easy chair having a beer, watching TV. And the cops all run by and he just keeps sitting there like nothing happened because I guess he's used to it. How can people see a little girl that they don't know come in and stay for three weeks, possibly in the same bedroom with a sex offender and not think, wow, who is she?

How does that happen? Well, when you're dealing with somebody like this individual, the sexual predator, and it's not to pick up for the people in the home, they're clearly woefully ignorant to what's going on, and we don't know why. But one thing I will say about individuals like child sexual predators is that their predatory nature makes them master manipulators. So who knows what he told them about who Ella was? He could have said that he was taking care of her for a friend or that she was his girlfriend and lied and said that she was older than she actually was or they're living in an environment where they just don't don't ask don't tell right that people live in really dysfunctional environments where things like this happen or he's made a situation where she can't make a sound

and she's literally hiding in there. Okay. Some of those are pretty good scenarios. What about Lieutenant Shackleton? People that act like nothing is happening. What is wrong with them? Yeah, it's tough. We would definitely like to know and have people come forward and give us any sort of information that could help.

Or if it seems wrong, come forward with that information. Lieutenant Shackleton, you know why I need somebody like you? Because you're so calm and even-keeled. Because when I think of this little girl just turned 14, back in the bedroom with a child pornographer, I get crazy and angry, angry. One day, two days, three days, seven days, 14 days, three weeks. You think they're back there having a tea party? Hell no.

And if one of these witnesses had come forward, think of the anguish. This child could have been saved. Think of the anguish this child could have been saved. Think of the anguish her mother could have been saved. They all need to go to jail together and stew in the same pot. But that's just me. How did this whole thing happen? Take a listen to Nicole Parton, Crime Online. On January 6th, Sarah Merrill contacts the Mount Vernon Washington Police Department and reports her 14-year-old daughter, Ella Jones, is missing. Since she left home, Ella Jones has not made contact with any family members or friends. Ella Jones is 5 foot 5 inches tall, has brown eyes and brown hair.

Ella has very distinctive dimples. She was believed to be wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, multicolored plaid pajamas and black Nike Air Force shoes. You know what's interesting about what we're hearing Lieutenant Shackleton with so many things. We say Ella did not contact her family. Seems to me that Ella was not allowed to contact her family. That's definitely a possibility. You know, definitely concerning any time this happens. And still involved in the investigation to find out if that is in fact whether she was prevented from doing that or if that was a choice. How do you handle a little girl that you save? I mean,

you can't just come out and say, were you molested? Were you beaten? You really got to handle these things with kid gloves. I know this from prosecuting so many child molestation cases and many of the child victims that I represented also had learning disabilities and all sorts of trauma inflicted on them. It's really hard to know the right questions, Lieutenant, and how to phrase them and when to bring it up and when not to bring it up. What is your standard operating procedure on that? Sure. With children and victims, you want to tread very lightly and give them the opportunity to share their story in their own words and ask those open-ended questions that allows them to do that in a safe manner. So I guess you guys bring in a psychologist or someone, a social worker, to help question Ella in the right way, correct? You can. A lot of agencies have their officers trained in child interview techniques.

And so when Van Buren County interviewed her, I'm not sure what types of other people or themselves did. I'm just thinking about what this child lived through and more. Can you imagine what Ella's mom went through that morning when she realized Ella was not in her room? Listen. Ella Jones's friends reached Ella's mother, telling her Ella had been talking to an older man on social media. A couple of kids did see her speaking to an adult male on a video on our computer. Merrill said during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ella reportedly met an adult male on the social media platform called Omegle. The site became very popular among teens, but was shut down last November.

According to Merrill, the site was like a roulette, saying it just matches you with random people. Since the site closed down last November, they continue to talk using Discord. Sarah confronts her daughter and, as punishment, takes away her phone temporarily. So that was the impetus that started it all off, and it came to that morning. the next morning Sarah Merrill did not wake up Ella Jones early it was Saturday by 11 a.m. Merrill had made breakfast but Ella was still not up she went to Ella's room and saw that she was gone her window was open but her phone keys and computer were left behind Sarah Merrill realizes her 14 year old daughter Ella daughter, Ella Jones, has vanished.

Ella left a cryptic message for her mother. The message said, she loved me and that she didn't want to hurt us anymore. It appears Ella knew where she was going because she took some of her belongings, clothes, her blow dryer. She also took her mother's flat iron. So Merrill went to Ella's friend's house right away and started asking questions. Joining me, Anna Sonoda, child grooming expert, licensed clinical social worker, and author of Duck, Duck, Groom, understanding how a child becomes a target. Anna Sonoda, thank you for being with us. I bet your head is spinning round and around based on what you're hearing. There's no way that this little girl had any idea the Keith that she was talking to online on Discord was

actually a registered sex offender. Yeah, Nancy, I think it's important for us to start with the concept that Ella is 14. She has no agency. She has no resources. She left probably the greatest safety tool that kids are armed with these days, which is a phone, and got into a vehicle with someone who had groomed her. And it's so, so important for your listeners to understand that predators are fueled by gas, grooming, access, and space. What was the available space to Ella and to Keith the virtual realm and what he did is he used flattery and favoritism and the forbidden fruit in this case would be freedom I'll come and get you we can live together I love you I care about you he conned this little child into believing that she

could trust him and that is the greatest insight to come out of this. Thankfully, this situation for parents and listeners that no one can be trusted online and that we need to do everything we can in our own homes to prevent access within virtual spaces as well as in-person spaces. You know, it's very unusual that you have a stranger-on-stranger child abduction when you look at statistics. But isn't it true that the likelihood a child will live past 72 hours in a stranger on stranger abduction is very, very low. Well, in this circumstance, so many kids who are using social media don't believe that those individuals are strangers. It was indicated that it's been months that they've been communicating through different platforms. And the relationship was formed via these online spaces. So it's important for us to remember that what our definition may be as adults

of knowing somebody and trusting someone, this was fast-tracked by this predator identifying this girl and grooming her. And who's to know that she's the only one? It would be very interesting to evaluate his history on his computer to see how many other young children he's contacted. Yeah, I'm wondering how that investigation is going to take place. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Eric Faddis, a veteran felony prosecutor, now private attorney. The evidence that can be gleaned from his cell phone, his laptop, if he's got one, his devices is going to be very valuable at trial. We don't know if Ella will be able to testify. We hope she can.

And I know that's traumatic. And I know that's hard on a child but years on she will look back and be glad that someone took up for her someone prosecuted the bad guy and that he went to jail so that's how that works and it's very hurtful and painful but you have to do the right thing. Explain to me, Eric Faddis, how important his devices are. Oh, Nancy, they are critical to this case. And you better believe that there are multiple search warrants either in the works or that have already been executed. They're going to get all of the digital devices.

They're going to be able to look into what this gentleman was researching online, what messages he was sending and to whom, his social media activity, any photos or videos that are on his phone that he, God forbid, may have taken during this entire transaction. So that is really going to be the nail in the coffin, I think, for the defendant in this case. Many people are speculating what happened to Ella during those three weeks. I can tell you this, nothing good. We know the defendant, Ellie Jenner-John, joining us from WWMT-TV is a convicted child pornographer. I believe he lied about where he was living. And I also believe from what I can glean that he was under basically no supervision at all. So what does the fox do when he has to leave his foxhole?

He finds another foxhole and he finds another hen house. So that's what this guy did too. I'm just telling you, it's just nature for him to do the same thing he's always done. Yeah, I mean, we're pushing for tons of answers. And I will say when it comes to a lot of the stories we do, I've worked very closely with Van Buren County Sheriff's Office, which is the group here that ultimately went in and found the victim and arrested the suspect. And I feel like usually we can work pretty closely and get answers from them,

but they're very tight-lipped on this one. And I understand it's, you know, multiple different states. I believe from the press conference we learned FBI was involved. So we're waiting to hear if charges will come from that. And, yeah, I wish, you know, I would love to insert my opinion and things like this, too. But the facts are so limited from authorities right now for us on the local level. Allie, Jen and John, what else have you learned during your investigation about the case? So we definitely learned that he had, I believe it was 10 felonies.

This is all according to court records. 10 felony charges out of Seminole County, Florida for child pornography. And that obviously is piquing our interest in terms of digging into more. Deputies won't confirm what social media platform, we've obviously scoured or scoured the many that are rumored to be involved and you know noticed like you had mentioned many were shut down I think our focus right now is really leaning into the probable cause we've asked and requested and then Buren County they record them so we're hoping to get some more information from that in terms of what led to this search warrant we do know that it was the car parked on their property,

is what the sheriff said, that ultimately led to them feeling confident. You know, they were there. We can go and find this suspect. And all he would say about that car is that they know it went across the country. So, you know, we can make assumptions from that as well. But I think the dirt of everything is really going to fall in that probable cause hearing that is thankfully recorded. And when we get our hands on that, you know, that information will be out there as soon as possible. Is it your belief, Allie Jenner-John, that he crossed the country to see this girl?

What I know is that deputies say the car outside of his home did travel across the country and back. Okay, so we're putting together two plus two to get four. Lieutenant Dave Shackleton, what comes next? Well, with the investigation ongoing, we've obviously got that trip all the way from Michigan to Mount Vernon and then back. And so following up on any of that information, continuing the searches of either the physical devices or search warrants out to the companies themselves to get back whatever information we can to share with prosecutors so they can take a look at the evidence in totality and come up with the correct charging decision. To imagine a little 14-year-old girl with a registered sex offender traveling all the way from Mount Vernon,

upstate Washington state, all the way to South Haven, Michigan. What ensued there, we may never know. Ms. Merrill, I want to hear your message because you have a very, very powerful message that you want to give parents and social media and the social media giants that are sitting up in their penthouses right now, very, very far away from me and you and Ella. What is your message to them? Safety precautions and accountability for those companies are not nearly enough. They leave every single child in America vulnerable to any predator who takes any interest in finding them. Us as parents can do anything and everything we can to try to mitigate things and talk with your children and keep them safe. But predators are good at their job and predators shouldn't be allowed to be there as easily as they are and companies who allow their platforms to be used by just anyone or by

any person without any type of age verification can tell us that they have accounts set up with safety precautions for children but nobody actually enforces that the children are using those things they can say they're any age at all. So they are placating us by saying that they have these safety measures, but nobody is actually making sure the safety measures are enforced and nobody is holding them accountable to make them do that. You know, when you joined us before, when we were searching desperately to find Ella, your beautiful girl, Everyone on the panel and online is saying, well, why didn't you do this? And you should do this and you should do that. Guess what? You were, you were doing it all. And I think those voices are rooted in, in this. People feel better when they can blame something because it takes them away from it happening to

them. Here's a good example. When, let's go with Karina Vetrano, whose father I have befriended, Phil. His daughter goes out jogging and she is attacked and murdered. All online, anyone could say was, well, why did she jog by herself? Why does she have on a jogging bra? Why did she this? Why does she wear ear buds? blah blah blah blah blah because then they not to attack her but then they could tell themselves well that's not gonna happen to me and that's not gonna happen to my little girl because I would never let her fill in the blank. See what I mean? So it makes everyone feel safer and that their children are safe. But the reality is they're not.

And I can scream it to the mountaintops, but back me up, Sarah Merrill. They're not safe. They're not. There was just recently that hearing through the Senate with a committee for internet safety for children. And that was pretty profound as far as timing for me. I did take the time to watch that. And it's a problem. Everybody knows it's a problem. Something needs to be done. Your voice is not alone. And we will do our best here to make your voice be heard for right now, for today, for this moment. All I can say is PTL. Praise the Lord. God bless you and your little girl

and her recovery. She's got a wonderful, wonderful mother mother and I think that's about 99% of the battle we wait as justice unfolds goodbye friend this is an iHeart podcast