Man lures 13-year-old he met on TikTok to his apartment 300 miles away, PA cops say
A 19-year-old man lured a 13-year-old girl almost 300 miles to his Pennsylvania apartment for sex acts after meeting her on TikTok just four days prior, police said.
Angel Lopez is facing 14 criminal charges including kidnapping a minor, statutory sexual assault and trafficking in individuals, according to court records filed on March 26.
His attorney information was not listed.
The teen girl was living with her mother in Greensburg when she and Lopez moved their conversation from TikTok to text messages between March 10 and March 14, police said. That's when Lopez sent the girl sexually explicit messages and videos and convinced her to send explicit videos to him, according to a criminal complaint.
Lopez then started to talk about running away with the 13-year-old girl and said he wanted to move out of the state and to get her pregnant, the complaint said.
That's when the man started to craft a plan to bring the girl to his Philadelphia apartment, police said. When the girl expressed concern, however, Lopez told her he would kill himself if she didn't go through with running away, according to the probable cause statement.
In the early hours of March 14, the girl's mother found a note from her daughter, the probable cause statement said.
'Dear Mom, I know you're wondering where I am, but I am not at the house,' the note said, according to police. 'I decided to run away because I think it will make life easier. I don't want to be in that house anymore. I promise I'm safe, and please don't look for me. I feel life will be better for me. I love you so much.'
Lopez had enticed the girl to get into an Uber he had paid for to go to his apartment in Philadelphia, an approximately 278-mile drive, police said.
When she arrived at the man's apartment building, he met her out front and took her to his fifth-floor apartment, police said. The girl told police he started to make sexual advances at her while they were still in the elevator.
He forced the girl into sex acts then made her shower so the girl could 'wash his DNA off,' the probable cause statement said.
The girl said she felt 'extremely uncomfortable and disgusted' during the sex acts and wanted to leave Lopez's apartment, the probable cause statement said.
When she told Lopez she wanted to leave, he said 'they won't be able to find you anyway,' according to the probable cause.
Meanwhile back in Greensburg, the girl's mom had contacted police, who were able to locate the girl's phone at the Philadelphia apartment, the probable cause statement said. Her mother then made the drive across the state to find her.
The girl managed to escape the man's apartment and was found by Philadelphia police, who took care of her until her mother arrived, police said. The girl was later evaluated at a hospital near Greensburg.
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