A 37-year-old man has been arrested and charged with four counts of statutory rape in connection to the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl from West Des Moines who was being reunited with her family this week.
West Des Moines Police Department detectives said the teen was found in Jefferson County, Tennessee, on May 26. She went missing during an overnight stay with her grandmother in West Des Moines on May 24, police said.
Earlier on May 26, state and local elected officials gathered in prayer with her family worried over the disappearance. Police said then that the teen did not have a history of running away.
West Des Moines detectives believed the teen was not alone on her way to Tennessee.
Deputies found the missing teen when they received a call about a female who had shown up to a residence stating she had been kidnapped, according to a news release from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee.
Investigators discovered the suspect, Martin Amaya Sandoval of New Market, Tennessee, had been communicating with the teen on social media, according to the news release. Sandoval allegedly drove 13 hours to West Des Moines on May 24 to pick her up and drive her back to Jefferson County, the news release said.
The investigation found the victim and Sandoval allegedly had sexual encounters, the news release said. Sandoval eventually was found and charged with four counts of aggravated statutory rape.
Sandoval is being held in the Jefferson County Detention Center with a $500,000 bond as of May 28, according to the news release. Investigators in both Tennessee and Iowa continue to investigate the case and further charges are expected in West Des Moines, the news release said.
West Des Moines Police Department officials declined to comment and said it was still an open investigation.
José Mendiola is a breaking news reporter for the Register. Reach him at jmendiola@dmreg.com or follow him on X @mendiola_news.
This story was updated to add a video.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Tennessee man charged with statutory rape in case of missing West Des Moines teen
Reporting by José Mendiola, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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