Missing teen from Orlando found in Springboro
A 14-year-old Florida girl missing for five months was returned to her home state after being found in a Springboro park.
The girl, who lives in Orlando and was identified in a Dec. 20 notice by The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, was released to Florida authorities on Jan. 29, according to Warren County Juvenile Court records reviewed Tuesday by the Dayton Daily News.
The case has been turned over to a human-trafficking task force set up by the FBI and Cincinnati police, according to Springboro Police Detective Terry Dunkel.
According to a search warrant, the girl and a Lebanon man were spotted on Jan. 16 at Milo Beck Park in Springboro by an off-duty Lebanon officer walking his dog. The officer smelled marijuana and contacted a local officer, who detained the teen and Lukas Serrano, 23, of Lebanon, the search warrant affidavit said.
The girl told police she was staying with friends, whose names she did not know, and in hotels, according to a Springboro police report.
She was charged with possession of and smoking marijuana and held in the detention center until Jan. 29, when she was turned over to the Florida State Attorney’s Juvenile Division, according to court records. Serrano told police he met the girl through the “Badoo” app.
“The report states Lukas Serrano advises he uses the app to meet girls, and he was looking for somebody to smoke with. Lukas Serrano met (the girl) in Cincinnati and took her to Indiana,” according to the affidavit.
The girl’s mother told police she hadn’t seen her daughter since Aug. 22 and suspected a boyfriend with family in Ohio had taken her.
Serrano is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.