Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - LITTLE SISTERS LURED BY KIDNAPPER ON ROBLOX

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

Two Florida sisters, aged 12 and 15, safely rescued by law enforcement in Georgia after a 19-year-old Nebraska man kidnapped them. The suspect allegedly drove nearly 1,500 miles from Omaha to Indiantown, Florida, after the three months they spent communicating on Roblox and Snapchat.    Police tracked the suspect’s car and safely intercepted them in Georgia Incidents like this have sparked national outrage and major legal battles. States including Florida, Iowa, and Kentucky have filed lawsuits against Roblox Corporation, alleging that the platform operates as a "hunting ground" for predators and fails to protect children from online grooming. Joining Nancy Grace today: Ben Powers - Criminal Defense Attorney, Facebook: Legal Powers PLLC, www.legalpowers.com Dr. Janie Lacy  -  Licensed Psychotherapist and CEO of Life Counseling Solutions, Author of "How To Heal From A Toxic Relationship: A Guide To Reclaiming Your Mental Health and Happiness", Host of “The Resilient Professional” Podcast onYouTube, janielacy.com, Instagram & Facebook: @JanieLacy Sheriff John Budensiek - Sheriff of Martin County, FL; career law enforcement officer and lifetime resident of Martin County Titania Jordan  - Chief Parent Officer, Bark Parental Controls, Author: "Parenting In A Tech World", www.Bark.us, Instagram/Twitter: @TitaniaJordan  Alexis Tereszcuk - Investigative Reporter, 'Crime Stories'  Sydney Sumner  - Investigative Reporter, ‘Crime Stories’ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Two little sisters lured by a kidnapper on road. Is your child or your teen on Roblox? If so, listen up. I'm Missy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. Two young teen sisters in Florida playing video games together,

completely unaware that predators are watching from the shadows of online gaming platforms. Watching from the shadows, that's the one good way to put it. Do you know that predators spend 24-7 praying our our teens and our children, and they do it so easily. You might as well just hand them the key to the front door because that's what they've got online straight out to special guests joining us. Sheriff John Budensik, he is the elected sheriff of Martin County, Florida. Sheriff, thank you for being with us. Would you say that's an accurate description that we might as I hand over the keys to the front door because these predators have a key right into your child's

bedroom where they're playing roadblocks. Well, Nancy, you're 100% right. We just experienced that nightmare story that we tell parents over and over and over to try to avoid. But it happened right here in our county, right under their parents' nose, and thankfully we're able to get these girls back safely. An Indiantown family desperately searches for missing 12 and 15-year-old sisters, they believe lured out of their home by a stranger on Roblox. Nearly six months ago, family members learned the girls communicating with the stranger via Snapchat and believe they have the situation handled. They never expected the stranger to travel across the country in the midst of winter storm

Gianna and take them. Worst a nightmare. Worst a nightmare. Back to the sheriff. Sheriff, sheriff, how old are the little girls? So one was a 15-year-old and the other one was a 12-year-old. and they started on Roblox, just playing game, something benign and innocent, and then this predator latched onto them and eventually moved them over to Snapchat

and started doing the grooming that we talk about often, complimenting them, telling them that he loved them, sending gifts. And before long, he's driving 1,500 miles all the way across the country to pick them up here in Martin County and take them back to Omaha, Nebraska. Good Lord in heaven. I am going to go to our investigative reporter in just one moment, Alexis Tereshaw, Sydney, some are standing by. But now to Titania Jordan joining us.

She is the chief parent officer at Bark, parental controls author of Parenting in a tech world. Titania explain for everybody that doesn't know what is Roblox. And my children, especially my son, loves Roblox. He played it a lot as a little boy. What is it? Yeah, my son loves Roblox as well. It is a bunch of games, a bunch of games that are user-generated, meaning you, Nancy, or I could create a digital game and anyone in the world could join that game. We create the design, we create the communications. It's a free-for-all. And there's a lot of fun

there, but there's also a lot of bad. In fact, at Bark, we analyzed 11.1 billion data points over 2025 across children's text, email, social media, search, et cetera. And what we found was that Roblox was the number two highest ranked platform for confirmed risky contact. And the only platform that beat that was Snapchat. Okay. I need you to repeat that to Tanya Jordan. To Tanya joining us, Chief Parenting Officer at Bark, which I have. I'm not an ambassador. I'm not a paid spokesperson. I have it. And it's very, very sensitive. I've given a million examples before about how I would get an alarm typically to my son. And then when I would, I got one the other day. It said sex content. I'm like, what? I went and looked at it. And it was the Nancy Grace show

on Epstein. And he's a subscriber. He didn't watch the program, but the title came up. And it flagged it. Bart flagged it. That's what Bart is. But Bart aside, that stat you just gave about roadblocks is scary. Explain? Yes. So at Bark, we send alerts over a variety of different categories, one of which is risky contact. If there is somebody contacting your child that you should know about, we will send you an alert. And the top platforms that we confirmed over 11.1 billion data points number one Snapchat, number two Roblox, followed by Instagram, TikTok, and Discord. This is happening at scale. You know, back to you, Sheriff John Budensik, joining us.

He is the elected sheriff Martin County, Florida. You know, suddenly you seem, you know, you look like a big husky guy. Suddenly you and your people, your men and women, seem mighty small. when there are 83 million, 83 million confirmed users on Roblox. How many of them, do you think all of them are children and teens playing? No. And you've got you and your sheriff's force to fight them.

When did you first learn about the two little girls missing? We learned that the two girls were gone, and within an hour we knew we were in trouble. We had everyone out. It was a full court press. We had the FBI out with this. We had our analysts, our dispatchers, our detectives. We knew time was of the essence, as it always is in these cases.

And thankfully, through some really smart, quick thinking by our deputies, we were able to start getting leads. Straight out to Alexis Tereschuk, joining us, Crime Stories, investigative reporter. Let's start at the beginning. What happened? So these two sisters, 12 and 15, spent. the summer playing video games online. They played on Roblox. They have a great time. Lots of different things. The thing is you can talk to strangers if you have it set up that way. So they start talking to a guy. He is really nice to them. He's first they just talk about the games online.

And you do what. Alexis, I'm sorry to stop you because I want to hear every fact, but right there, I've got a question for Tatania Jordan. She, Alexis, just said, you can play with strangers if you have it set up like that. Now, because of you, Titania, I had. heard about dangers online and whenever I would walk in, it was usually my son, not my daughter as much, but often my son would be playing. I'm like, who are you playing with? And he would go, you know, this one and that one from school and some other dude. I'm like, what other dude? It's probably like a 65 year old guy in his basement all alone in his underwear. Is that who you want to be playing with, Fortnite or whatever? And he go, ew! And that is where we started playing only with

people you know in real life. So Alexis Torres-Chuk is absolutely correct. You can have it set up a certain way so you don't play with strangers. You only play with people you know in real life. But if you don't know that, you know, very subtle but critical differentiation, you may be playing with some purve halfway around the world and not even know it. How do you set it up so you're not playing with strangers to Tanya? Any parent who allows their child to play Roblox needs to Google three words. Roblox, parental controls. Take the time five to 20 minutes to set those up. Limit who your child can communicate with. Make sure Roblox knows your child's real age so it can at least do with the very bare minimum of putting it into what they think

is an age-appropriate experience. Well, isn't it true to Tonya, that the perves can put in, I'm 10 years all too. Well, what's interesting, Nancy, is because of the fire Roblox has been under, they've rolled out facial recognition and identification. And some of the time they get it right, but there have been multiple reports of people, adults and children, letting Roblox scan their face, and Roblox says you're a certain age, and it's not the real age. In fact, my son's girlfriend did it, and it said she was 18, and she is 15, and so there are problems there. Back to you. Alexis Tereshachic, I just wanted to clear that up. Alexis, you have a little boy too, right?

So perk up your ears. So you can set it to not playing with strangers. Okay, now you said they were playing over the summer. Would you pick it up right there, please? Thank you. They were. They're playing on the summer. They start out.

They are strictly on Roblox. They're not on any other side. They're playing games. They start talking with a guy. He starts complimenting them. He says, wow, you're really good at playing this. And then he tells them to switch over to Snapchat, which is another app that kids can have.

have anybody can have on their phone. And that's where he starts grooming them. He starts saying, calling them like baby. And then he starts getting really aggressive. He sends them gifts to their home. He sends them food, sort of like, you know, you get ice cream delivered or lunch or snacks delivered, something that he's paying money for.

So he knows their home address, and he is now sending them gifts to their home. So they built up this whole relationship all over the internet. And they are actively talking back and forth with him. And they have shared this private information with him. So he knows exactly where they live. I was just about to say, Alexis, if he's sending ice cream sandwiches and cookies and so forth to their home, he has their home address. A little too

relaxed during yoga? That's embarrassing. You know what's not? Debt. Consolidate your debt with a loan from fig. No early repayment fees and low interest rates. So you can pay off your debt faster. Borrow Better with FIG. Visit fig.ca. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Dr. Janie Lacey is joining us licensed psychotherapist, CEO of Life Counseling Solutions,

author of How to heal from a toxic relationship, host of the resilient professional and you can find her at Janie Lacey.com. Dr. Janie, you got to wade into the What do you have to say about this?

No, Nancy, my heart breaks for these families. You know, as I just heard my co-panelist, what we're watching is the grooming behavior that's just in the digital world, right? These predators and this predator, I should say, he just didn't just randomly message these girls. He strategically built trust over time through this platform that from,

and my son plays roadblocks as well, that as parents sometimes we just think is just a game. But that transition that we know from roadblocks to Snapchat, it shows that it was calculated escalation. You know, he was isolating them. He built that false sense of intimacy as we just heard sending them gifts. And then he exploited that. He exploited that. And this is exactly how predators operate, whether it's online or in person, Nancy.

I'm looking at the screens. Our control room is playing. Again, remember, Titania said that you create your own game. You can have football players. You could have a girls soccer team. You could be in a dance class. It could be on Broadway. You create the game you want to play.

And you're seeing a lot of those choices. It's whatever you can imagine. You create that game. Oh, there you go. There's race car. It could be Formula One. It could be NASCAR. All sorts of things.

And doesn't it look fun? Sydney Sumner joining us, crime stories? Don't they look fun? All these, The scenarios, the football zone, the merch, the this, it's a preteen, a tween, or a teen's dream. Absolutely. You can be anything you want.

You can go anywhere you want. And use correctly, well, correctly is a vague term. But I see my nieces and nephews all the time playing together. They can meet up in this video game world and go play these games together, even when they're not sitting together in the same home. So it really is supposed to be this wonderful tool, this online gaming experience for young children to be able to enjoy this together. But you have all of these predators, all of these grown adults using this as a hunting ground. Bright and early Saturday morning, two Indiantown sisters head to a park near their home.

When their grandparents find out they may be meeting an online friend at the park, the girls are picked up and grounded, not allowed to. leave home or have access to their phones. But when they're called out of their rooms for dinner around 6 p.m., the girls are nowhere to be found. Just hearing that run, puts a chill down my spine. Joining me is an acclaimed lawyer, Ben Powers, criminal defense attorney. And you can find him on Facebook at Legal Powers. Ben, thank you for being with us.

This reminds me so much of Abby and Libby. the two beautiful little girls in Delphi who went out to a public park and they never came home, Ben, they never came home. It is a concerning issue with Roblox because what Roblox really is at its core is the internet with a candy shop kind of veneer to it.

It's like cartoony characters, a lot of child-friendly type images is as far as the types of games you can make and the character types and things like that, it's definitely geared towards children. But what we're really talking about is the Internet with messaging capabilities that anyone can access and it's just got a real flowery, nice kind of image to it. But it really is the Internet in the most broadest form with adults and children alike on there. Yeah, and I guarantee Ben Powers, if all the adults knew how many perves,

how many, it's typically men playing with the children, they wouldn't let their child touch it with a 10-foot pole. Back to special guests joining us, Sheriff John Boudensik. He is the elected sheriff Martin County. So when you first got the call, who called? The grandparents called the sheriff's office, at which point our road patrol, our first responders, went out to the house. And they just started a conversation.

We thought initially that the girls, were just simply out for the night around town. They started looking the area they were in as a small town. Out for the night around town. One of them is 12 years old. What do you mean, man? Around town, out for the night. Evening, out for the evening.

A 12 year old? Out on the town? Go back to that. It's 6 o'clock at night. It's a small community, tight-knit community, and they thought the girls had walked to a convenience store right by their house, or they were close by. Okay.

So we exhausted that search. more acceptable than two little girls out on the town. I get it. Got it. We did that many times, Sheriff, in the little community where I grew up, nothing but pine trees and soybean fields as far as you could see. And the big thrill was to walk to the convenience store. That was a good two miles one way.

Okay. Back to your story. So that convenience store, by the way, is only about 200 yards from their house. They exhausted those resources immediately, figured out the girls were in fact gone. The family was instrumental in this. They had been diligent, like our co-panelists said, and noted that they were in midsummer on chats on Roblox and Snapchat. And our detectives at that point are starting to enter into this scene and trying to figure out who any of these individuals were on social media.

Sheriff, I don't want to interrupt, but you said something about the family had ferreted out that they did not go to the convenience store. What had the family done to find them? before they called you? The family and friends had done their own neighborhood search around the close-knit community and realized that the girls were not there. They called our deputies. Our deputies started asking the questions. Of course, they realized that the girls were not in the immediate area.

And then they started asking, are there any other options here? Is there anything else that could have taken place? And the family said, well, back in the middle of the summer, months ago, we caught the girls on Roblox and then on Snapchat, community. communicating with an individual. They didn't know who the individual was. They didn't know where they were from, but they knew they're communicating. And the family actually shut that down. Unbeknownst to them, the girls reignited that conversation on Snapchat and continued that conversation. Well, hold on just a moment. Sheriff, I got another question for you. I got a

question for you. You got me drinking from the fire hydrant here. So many facts at once. First of all, I know you've heard this too. People second guess the family. such as, why did it take so long to call 911? Well, when your child is not in their room, you don't pick up your cell phone out of your pocket and call 911. You go look in the kitchen, you go look in the basement, you look everywhere else, you go in the front yard, you go in the backyard, you try to call their cell phone, you might call a friend, you might look around the neighborhood before you go, okay, this is bad, I got to call 911. The family did that. Then the family says that there had been a Roblox problem over the summer and they shut it down.

I guarantee you, Sheriff, the first time they realized there was a problem was probably when ice cream or some sort of treat arrived at the door from somebody they've never heard of. That's a real wake up. And the way you said it was absolutely accurate, but it makes the girl. sound sneaky, all children think they know more than all parents. So the children think that they know this person, and they're like, there's nothing wrong with him. So we're going to do it in secret. Mom and dad, they just don't understand. So they're not horrible, sneaky, unruly children. They just thought they knew better, but they didn't. Okay, back to you were saying the Emily told you about the communications over the summer.

Then what happened? Our detectives asked to see the devices. They look, nothing on the devices. No gaming app, no Snapchat, nothing on there. And then one of our detectives actually had the thought, maybe I can read download Snapchat and just see what's on there. And he did, and immediately after redownloading that app, this long thread of communication popped up.

in that threat of communication was an individual's face who was communicating with them and telling them, be careful. I can get in trouble for this communication. I'm coming to get you. Don't stand me up. I love you. And just a long thread. And in that, thankfully, you had taken a photo of his face. I'm sorry.

I just got up off the floor. I fell off my chair. I cannot imagine, Sheriff, look at. at my daughter's or my son's cell phone and finding out that she has been back and forth with

a grown man. And I see his face looking right at me. I would fall over. And this, Sydney Summer, this was the grandparents, correct? Yes, the grandparents were taking care of these sisters that day.

At approximately 8 p.m. on Saturday night, our Roe Patrol deputies in Indian Town responded to a call for service and learned that there were two missing females, a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old. They had gone missing a few hours earlier, they believed. The same day at about 9 in the morning, these same two girls had gone to a local park there in Indian Town, had been found by a family member, brought back to their home, punished, and part of that punishment was having two of their cellular devices removed from their person. What starts as an innocent connection on Roblox quickly deepens.

A new friend gains their trust through games and chats, then pushes the relationship onto more private forms of communication. There was a potential suspect already in this case. And that suspect had been identified through a Snapchat app back in 2025, in the middle of 2025. And the family members suggested to our deputies that an individual on that app may be involved in these girls disappearing. Holy molly. No, I want to see the book in photo, please,

because there he looks very, yeah. Alexis Tereschuk, what if you go on and find out this is who your daughter? I want to see him again, please, is chatting with. It's a grown man. That's not a 10-year-old boy. That's not a 17-year-old boy. That's a grown man.

It is not a classmate at all. It is somebody that lived thousands of miles away. He is a full adult and he is chatting with not one but two, both of these sisters telling them he loves them, love bombing them, really, with gifts and but sneaky, being really sneaky and telling them to switch over to a different app because Roblox, you know, the parents could stop at Snapchat. It's a little bit harder. And in fact, you know, the parents, the grandparents took what they thought was every step of protection

after they got the girls out of the park and brought them home. said you're in trouble you're grounded staying room they took away their phones but what was a tablet in the house you know like an ipad or something and that way they were able to then access it and they told him they said oh we can't come we can't meet you and he insisted he continued to say i miss you i love you you have to come with me he would not give up and little girls don't know how to respond to that dr janey lacey you tell a little 12 year old girl i love you i love you you know i could get in trouble from meeting you. Very Romeo Juliet type scenario. The family can't find out. That is extremely sneaky and it is a ploy used by sex predators online. All the time, Nancy, you know,

what happens is those predators, they lurk in these spaces where children congregate. And these platforms are so sophisticated. You know, when we think about what we're talking about, Roblox and the chat platforms, social media, they look for those vernon. abilities, kids who seem lonely, that are seeking attention, or going through some type of family structure. And then they'll present themselves as either a peer, a friend, someone who gets them, and they'll shower them with that attention, those compliments, that validation. And in this case, he likely positioned himself as someone cool, understanding, and maybe even a romantic interest. And then what we'll see is then they move those conversations exactly what happened off the original

platform to more private spaces. there's less monitoring and the messages in this case disappear and this creates that secrecy. And then we'll see they'll gradually introduce. You know, I'm curious. Mm-hmm. Alexis Terescha, you stated that he began love bombing them. What do you mean by that? It just is like an obsessive, relentless telling you, I love you, telling you how great you.

I call them baby, call them sweet, sending gifts to the house. That is really just crossing a line again, because these girls are 12 and 15. These are little children. They cannot drive yet. As you see in the pictures where you're not showing their face, but they're wearing like Christmas light necklaces. They're very young little children. But love bombing is just a consistent of just relentlessly telling you how much they love you.

And it's not even a sincere love thing. It's just an obsessive statement. Sydney Sumner, what type of things did he send to the home? Our understanding it was mostly food items like sweet treats or sweet treats. snacks, things of that nature. Wow, just what a teen girl would like. So, Sheriff, when you began, how did you manage to go back in time on the device to find this man's picture?

It was thinking of one of our deputies that just, they understand apps, they realize there's a potential if we read download the app that the thread may still be there. And that's exactly what happened. The deputies got a hold of the digital device that these girls were using to communicate with that individual, saw that the Snapchat app was deleted holistically from the device, had the thought process to reload the device. And when they did, they could see a constant threat of communication between this individual and these two young girls to include the suspect who you see behind me driving to Indian Town, Florida,

to pick these girls up and leave. Sheriff, what went through your mind when you saw this face appear in the history? That we're dealing with nothing but trouble here. Nothing good is going to come out of this incident. The conversations quickly moved to Snapchat, daily messages, growing emotional bonds, and even food deliveries sent to the girls' home, blurring the lines between online friend and predator. This individual lived in Omaha, Nebraska, and was potentially just giving them little things that they needed and just making them feel good about themselves.

He complimented them through the app called the older girl baby, referred to her romantically, and then sent her things. So that's all indicative of what we see in some of these. Sheriff, you stated that this guy lives in Omaha, Nebraska. Wouldn't that be what a 15 to 20 hour drive? It's 1,500 miles away. It's a 23-hour drive. Good gravy.

Two, Ben Powers joining us, veteran criminal defense attorney. Ben, if you're the defense attorney here, you've got a lot of explaining to do. He had 23 hours to plot and plan the kidnap of two little girls, one 12 years old. Well, so it's an interesting legal argument or situation with this story because, one, I would want, know more specifically what the communications were. If they're just saying positive things and suggesting or even sending that I'll buy you food or sending ice cream sandwiches, as unnerving as that is, there's technically not anything illegal and something like that. But if the communication is more sexual, then there are criminal code violations for that. But then also with the kidnapping,

I mean, if they go voluntarily, you know, kidnapping is against someone's will, not with their will. And so if he's been love bombing on to where they go voluntarily, it's all going to come back to the communications, because the communications are where his criminal exposure is. The actual riding at a car with down short of something more, since it does seem that they went voluntarily with him, I'm not sure that there's a criminal offense that's been alleged. Ben Powers. Let me ask you a question. Do you think I just fell off the turnip truck?

No, ma'am. Okay. You do know that I practice criminal law as a prosecutor for over 10 years as a Fed and a state violent crimes prosecutor, yes? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Mr. Powers, isn't it true that someone under the age of consent cannot give consent? That's why they call it the age of consent, right? So if you're 12 years old or even 15 years old in most jurisdictions, you cannot consent to.

You can't, let's see, you can't enter into a contract. You can't go buy a car. You can't buy a house. Even if you have a million dollars, you can't even buy a pack of cigarettes. Isn't that true being powers? It is, but age of consent would be for like some type of sexual contact, but just getting in a vehicle is something that they can consent to do. and especially when we're talking about false imprisonment or kidnapping inherently requires without their consent, I think that's going to be a problem for the prosecutor with that type of charge

under these facts, but I'm sure those communications will push that out more. If he thought there wasn't something wrong with it when they had to come home from their first aborted meeting with him that morning, and he was saying, don't let your family find out, that would suggest to me that he knew what he was doing, was wrong. So I think I've got someone that's going to disagree with you, Ben Powers. Sheriff, is it okay to lure little girls into your car and drive away? It absolutely is not. And of course, this case will be litigated, but no, 12 and 15 years old. There's a reason why we have an age of consent for other things. And you hit the nail on the head. These girls were not mature enough

and old enough to make that decision. The girls initially appear to have intended to hook up with him in the morning at the park. That did not happen. They were disciplined, brought home. Their devices were taken away. And our suspect was then milling around Indian town for a period of time. Isn't it true, Sheriff John Boudnseek, that he, the perp, excuse me, the alleged perp, was saying comments like, I drove all this way. Please, don't leave me hanging.

Come on. I've driven 20 hours to see you. You've got to come back. I mean, he was really pressuring a 12 and 15-year-old little girl. Not only that, Nancy, he also reminded them of the severity of what he was getting them into. He knew he could get in trouble for this. So he pressured them and reminded them that what he was doing was illegal and he could get in trouble. What was he saying, Sheriff?

He was just saying, if anybody finds out, I could get arrested. If anybody finds out, I could get in trouble. So he was warning them, he was trying to recruit them to be secretive so they could carry out their plot of him picking them up and leaving our area. And isn't it true, Sheriff? He actually took a picture of himself at the Indian town Circle K and sent it to the girls. He did, and that was an important piece of our puzzle. Thankfully, he did because it put them in our gas station, we're able to get a tag number

from being at that gas station. So it was a critical piece of evidence for us. And then what happened? So again, we called everybody out. as in any of these missing persons cases time is of the essence and we called our analyst out we were able to do some orders to the to snapchat specifically and get some IP addresses and really start tracking back devices keep in mind the girls didn't have devices so the only one that had devices was this mysterious face

that we had a picture of but we had no idea it was so we were able to start getting some device information and then start nearing in on our suspect through the tag number and that device he was possessing. Now, isn't it true he was communicating with your detectives, but didn't realize it, or did he realize it? The family, unbeknownst to us at that time, reached out to him on Snapchat and was asking him about the girls. So he did what you see a lot of these criminals doing.

He started feigning his concern. Oh, please, I'm worried about them. Please let me know that they're okay. So he starts this conversation all the while he's driving northbound on I-75 with these girls in his custody. And he's feigning that he cares about their safety. He's acting that he's worried that something bad is going to happen to him. And he's the problem. He's driving him down the road.

So wait, let me understand this, Sheriff, Sheriff John Boudensick. He's writing, where are the girls? Where are they? What happened to them? I'm worrying. I want to help you find them in all the time. They're in the car and they've got the pedal to the metal. up 75, which goes all the way from Florida, all the way to New York City, right?

That's exactly right. Yes. What happened then, Sheriff? Well, we knew we had to reach out to other jurisdictions. We started in the state of Florida. A Florida Highway Patrol was contacted. They could not quite catch him before he exited the state. He exits our state in the Georgia. And thankfully, the Georgia Highway Patrol was contacted by us and were able to make a traffic stop on that vehicle. and take our suspect into custody

and most importantly, recover those girls for us safely. 6.45, he's leaving Indian Town, and right around 1 a.m. in the morning, on Sunday morning, the Georgia State Patrol was able to stop that vehicle just inside of the state of Georgia. So I'm trying to do the math that fast,

five or six hours. Sheriff, you acted, you acted quickly, you acted decisively, and you saved the girls' lives. What happened? when you finally saw the girls and saw the alleged perp. We had a collective sigh of relief amongst us. The family came out.

They were crying. They realized what could have happened. They were thanking us profusely. And we just felt that elated feeling of doing our job, doing it effectively, and we knew what we had accomplished. You know, Sheriff, if you never do another good thing, which I doubt, you have done this

and you have saved two girls from we don't know from what got a pretty good idea and definitely got your angel's wings finally I get to report a story with a happy ending

but it's not always that way is it sheriff they really are we're still reeling from a missing girl in 1993 from our area that's 30 plus years ago, we're still feeling that the effects of all. There is no application online that's safe. No application online that's safe.

Be it a gaming ad, be it in Snapchat, being at something as user-friendly as Instagram or any social media application, if you can communicate with somebody away from your house in the quiet of your own room, it can be a phone. A little too relaxed during Yoke. relaxed during yoga? That's embarrassing. You know what's not? Debt. Consolidate your debt with a loan from FIG. No early repayment fees and low interest rates so you can pay off your debt faster. Borrow better with FIG.C.A. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Straight out to Tataanya Jordan joining us, Chief Parent Officer Bart Parental Controls. She is the author of parenting in a tech world.

Titania, again, thank you for being with us. To Tanya, we have to explain how to help students, children, tweens. But before you start, I want you to hear this story. And it's not just a story. This is real. Parents believe their little boy met someone on Roblox, left to go meet with them. The next thing we know,

No, he's dead. He committed suicide. He jumped from a bridge. Now, Roblox is saying, we're not involved. There are claims Roblox not involved. The parents say, yes, they are. We don't know the truth yet. Dave Matt, what happened?

Nancy, what we have is we've got a little boy who is using, is on Roblox. And he meets somebody, you know, by using on Roblox. is communicating with this individual and gets lured away. He's last seen leaving, or actually last seen at a train station with his backpack on and carrying something. That's the last thing that we know. And Roblox is, there he is. That's Thomas Meadow.

He's 15 years old. And it's one of those shocking things, Nancy, that we've been talking about for you. years about young people being lured away from the safety of their homes and with parents who are actively involved and still creditors have a way of getting to our young kids. And that's what apparently happened here with Thomas Medlin. He's 15 when he leaves school. You know, he left like at 3.30 in the afternoon, right after school gets off. And he's last seen crossing the bridge, the pedestrian walk on the bridge. And that's it. That's it. That's the last photo we have of him, and then he's gone.

Which leads me to my friend, Alicia Kovitskiewicz, who actually survived a horrific kidnap and a brutal torture. I spent a lot of time online talking to my friends from school. And at the time, it felt like it was a clubhouse. Three-week calling was still a thing. And I remember explaining it to my mom, and it was like, three-way calling with as many people as you want. And it was in the family room, and it should have been safe.

but I didn't have the tools to keep myself safe, and neither did my family. And there I was in a chat room, and somebody messaged me, and I thought that it was a boy around my own age. So I trusted that this person was who they said they were. I was who I said I was. Why would somebody lie that never came up in my mind?

And he immediately began to groom me. And of course, I didn't know it at the time. There were no red flags and none that I could be aware of. He began acting as though he was my friend. We sat around the dinner table, We laughed. It was the holiday. We had a family meal, which we would have every year.

It was a good luck meal. And my mom and dad were there, and my brother and his girlfriend and my grandmother. So it's a really beautiful evening. The snow was falling. And I asked my mother if I could be excused from the table. And instead of going upstairs to lie down, I slipped out of the front door, past the Christmas tree

that was up and into the coldest, darkest, darkest, iciest night of the year. And to tell you how effective grooming is, I was a child who was really quite scared of the dark, hated the cold with the past, and never went outside alone after dark. Yet completely out of my character, I walked out of that front door

and didn't take my coat. I left the door open just a little bit because I was planning on coming right back through it and out into my neighborhood. And this is my neighborhood, and it should be safe. And again, it was beautiful. The snow was untouched, and there were Christmas lights in the windows

and it was a really beautiful, quiet, peaceful night, which soon became my hell. I walked up the street just to the street just about a block or so and if I turned around I could still see my house so I thought okay well there's my house I must be safe again neighborhood this is my familiar area and finally this little voice spoke up at my head my intuition which I ask everybody to listen to and to teach your children to listen to pay attention to it because it is there for a reason I heard this little voice say

Alicia this is dangerous go home now and I turned around and next thing I know is in a car and this man was squeezing my hand so tightly that I thought he had broken it. And he was barking commands at me, be good, be quiet, the trunk's cleaned out for you. He showed me that he had handcuffs. People will ask me, when did you know that you were in danger? When did you become afraid? And it was absolutely immediately, I knew that I was no longer in control of my life. And then the story, believe it or not, gets worse. He just continued to drive and there were toll booth after told booth. And I can remember the sound

of the car stopping at this house. And the car stopped, and he rushed out of the car, came to the other side, and dragged me out and into this house down a flight of stairs, which felt like they went on forever and ever and ever and that they were a descent into hell. And that's exactly what they were. He got to the bottom of the stairs,

and there was a door with a padlock on it. He unlocked the door, pushed me inside, picked me up like I weighed absolutely nothing, propped me up on this table, forced me to look at him, and said, this is going to be really hard for you. It's OK to cry. And then he turned on the lights. And this room was blanketed.

These walls were blanketed with these devices that I certainly couldn't understand, but that they were there to torture somebody. And that somebody was me. And this has been called by the media a dungeon. And again, that's what it was. After that, he removed my clothing and placed a locking dog collar around my neck

with another padlock. And then that was the first night that he reached me. After he reached me, he reached down, grabbed a chain, attached to the collar, and then fell asleep. Back to Tanya Jordan joining us, Chief Parental Controls. I've got so many more true life narratives

about children being lured online, please help us to Tanya. What can we as parents do? The first thing you can do, the best free tip I have for anybody, is to keep connected tech out of your children's bedrooms, out from behind closed doors. The second thing I would say is, please do not assume not my child. It could happen to any child.

The smartest children, the most loved children. It can happen to any child. So your child needs to know they can come to you with anything dangerous or confusing online, and you're not going to freak out, but you will help them navigate the landscape that is the access you have given them, which is the entire world. Now, you don't have to give them access to the entire world. There are safer pieces of tech out there. There are parental controls like BARTC. You don't have to give your child an open iPhone, for example. You can go with a safer smartphone

for a child that lets you set parental controls and time limits. And please, please, please, do not just hand over tech to your child and think they'll be okay. You have to do the work. you have to be the parent. When you're talking about parental controls, believe it or not, a lot of people don't know how to find them. They're not tech savvy, nor should they be. Why should they be? You know, to Tanya, moms and dads all over the country, all over the world, are working all day. They're coming home.

They're trying to put a meal on the table or order. Yeah. And just holding it together. If you say, find the parental controls. They're like, what? What is she saying? Explain it. Yes.

Okay. So thankfully, because of AI, the ability to turn on parental controls is much easier. So go to Google, go to chat GPT, go to Claude, and say, hey, my child has this type of phone, uses this app or wants to, has this gaming console. We have this home internet service provider. Help me, give me a step by step guide for how to turn on the parental control. controls for my household. And it should give you step by step by step by step. Now it won't always be 100% accurate, but the bottom line is ask your preferred search engine how to turn on the parental controls for the things your child actually uses. And before that,

don't be afraid to delay. Delay is the way. They don't have to have Snapchat in sixth grade. They don't have to have a smartphone in eighth grade. You are the parent, you are in control. And if when it's time for your child to access certain things, look up what is the safest way for my child to use XYZ, the safest way for my child to text, the best way to track their location. Use search to your advantage and be empowered that you are not alone and making safer choices. To Tonya Jordan, you're amazing. Thank you for any and all advice. Guys, also, we are releasing a one-on-one with Titania, where she gives us a tutorial. going through all the ways you can keep your children safe online.

And now we remember an American hero, Deputy Sheriff Adam Davis, Bell County Sheriff's, Texas. He passed away in the line of duty and leaves behind grieving parents, Carlos and Guadalupe, and son Lance. American Hero, Sheriff Adam Davis. Nancy Gray, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.