Police found a 16-year-old girl missing from North Carolina after warning authorities after noticing that a driver on Interstate 75 in southern Kentucky was signaling a distress in another car. I did.
61-year-old James Herbert Brick in Cherokee, North Carolina, has charged a driver in a car with illegal imprisonment and possession of materials showing sexual performance by minors. Laurel Cooty Sheriff John Root..
Deputy Gilbert Asiald, a spokesman for Root’s office, said the girl and Brick knew each other.
The girl was happy to go with Brick at first, but at some point during the trip she seemed scared, Acciardo said.
“I think she started to be afraid of her life,” Acciardo said on Friday.
According to Root’s office, the girl’s parents reported that she had gone missing from Asheville, North Carolina, on Tuesday morning.
At noon on Thursday, the driver is heading south on I-75, called 9-1-1 in Laurel County, making a hand gesture recognized by social media platform TikTok while chasing a silver Toyota car. He said he noticed a girl in the car, asking for help, according to a news release.
The girl also seemed to be suffering.
The unnamed driver continued to chase Toyota and provided dispatchers with up-to-date information about where they were.
The sheriff parked at the I-75 interchange with KY80 to monitor the vehicle. The driver got off at the exit and the police stopped the car.
The 16-year-old girl told police that after leaving with Brick, she traveled from North Carolina through Tennessee and Kentucky to her relatives in Ohio.
According to a news release, when relatives knew the girl’s age and she was reported missing, Brick returned south on an I-75 and the girl began trying to attract the attention of other drivers.
According to a news release, police officers found that Brick’s cell phone contained an image allegedly “sexually portraying a young woman.”
Lieutenant Chris Edwards and Robert Reed, a detective in Root’s office, arrested Brick shortly after 12:30 pm.
Kentucky police, London police, Ashville and Cherokee police stations, the FBI and Kentucky social workers helped the case.
An arrangement was made on Friday to return the girl to North Carolina, Acciardo said.
The brick was held at Laurel County Orthodontic Center Friday under $ 10,000 bond.