Missing teen found under a trap door in Kentucky home

STANFORD, Ky. — Police in Kentucky found a missing 16-yearold North Carolina girl under a trap door in the bedroom of a 34-year-old man after the man’s mother called authorities to report a domestic dispute between the two, according to arrest reports.

When deputies with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the home Christmas Day, Zachary Jones told them the girl had fled, but his mother disputed that and deputies began searching to check on her safety, the reports said. She was found “inside a bed room in a cut out door in the floor covered by a rug,” the report said.

Deputies later determined she had been reported missing from Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Dec. 6.

The girl told deputies that Jones picked her up after making contact a few weeks earlier and that he originally told her he was 19. When they met and she questioned why he looked older, he told her he was 25, but she found out after getting to his home and meeting his family that he was 34, the reports said. She said he threatened her and told her to tell people she was 18.

She told officers that he had a gun and had threatened to kill her several times and that on the day they were found, they had used drugs and he had choked and assaulted her, the arrest reports said.

Jones was originally taken into custody because he tried to destroy drug paraphernalia deputies found in the home while searching for the girl, reports said.

Jones admitted using drugs with her and having an altercation, but he denied choking her, one report said. Marks were visible on her throat, it said. Jones and the girl both said they had sex on multiple occasions, and Jones admitted to luring her by using an electronic device and taking her from her grandmother’s home in North Carolina, the reports said.

He was charged with multiple crimes, including third-degree rape, unlawful imprisonment, assault, strangulation, possession of a controlled substance and unlawful transaction with a minor.