Missing 12-year-old Hall County girl found in Ohio with man she met online

The Hall County Sheriff’s Office on Friday released new details about what led to the discovery of a missing 12-year-old girl. Maria Gomez Perez disappeared from her Gainesville, Georgia, home on May 29. She was found July 25 in Dover, Ohio, with a 34-year-old man she met online, Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch said.

During a news conference on Friday, Couch said Gomez-Perez met Guatemalan resident Antonio Agustin online and began chatting with him and other adult males via Facebook Messenger. That conversation turned into a pattern of escalating behavior, with Agustin driving from his home in Ohio to Gainesville to pick up Gomez-Perez and return her to northeast Ohio, where investigators believe they have been ever since.

Investigators said they found Gomez-Perez after she created another Facebook account to message her father that she was OK but wasn’t coming home and wanted him to stop looking. The father then called police and they were able to locate the child.

Police said they had tracked down Agustin’s phone number and arrested him, charging him with kidnapping.

The sheriff said Maria is safe and okay.

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Missing Hall County girl Maria Gomez-Perez found safe in out of state