Missing 13-year-old found in Oregon; 40-year-old man facing child luring charges

Editor’s Note: Edmonton Police Services and Oregon police have confirmed the suspect’s age to be 40-years-old, not 41-years-old per initial releases

The Edmonton teenager who was missing for more than a week was found in Oregon on Saturday morning, police say.

The 13-year-old had been missing since June 24 after she took the bus to Killarney Junior High School, but did not enter the school.

Edmonton police say a 40-year-old Oregon man is in custody. The suspect is facing charges of child luring.

EPS says the suspect will likely face additional charges from the U.S.

The girl was taken to a children’s hospital in Oregon for precautionary examination.

Her family was notified early Saturday morning.

“Arrangements are being made to return (her) safely back to her family,” EPS said in a release.

"Right now we aren't exactly sure how she crossed the border," says it would be speculated to say they crossed together, this will come together later on in investigation.

— Carly Robinson (@CarlyDRobinson) July 2, 2022

Social media communication between suspect and victim

Police believe there was online communication between the victim and suspect on at least one social media platform. Police are not sure how extensive the communication was. They are working with cyber crimes and ICE unit to get more details.

At a press conference Saturday, EPS Insp. Brent Dahlseide with Major Crimes said the investigation started with patrol and moved on to missing persons on Monday.

Dahlseide said when police became aware of the suspect’s name, things really picked up speed.

Investigators found some CCTV footage from near the school that helped in connecting the dots to finding the teen.

Random, or was this 41-year-old known to the family? says it's still early, having not interviewed the teen… other than to say it was through social media and online, not sure how long. Child luring charge works because of online history with this individual.

— Carly Robinson (@CarlyDRobinson) July 2, 2022

They found the suspect was outside of Canada, and commanding officers worked overnight communicating with FBI and Oregon police to coordinate the arrest.

“Right now we aren’t exactly sure how she crossed the border,” added Dahlseide, specifying that it’s not clear if they crossed together.

Officers believe the suspect was in Mission, B.C. for about three or four days following the teen’s disappearance.

Police say the case met the threshold for an Amber Alert Friday, but by then it was determined the suspect and suspect vehicle were already outside of the country – and therefore outside of Canada’s Amber Alert system.

Dahlseide recognized the family and public’s role in getting the word out.