A 13-year-old girl who vanished from Louisiana was found days later in a box covered with a sheet in the basement of a Pittsburgh home – ending a multi-state search that began with a Snapchat message and led to allegations of kidnapping, trafficking, and sexual assault.
U.S. Marshals say the girl, who was reported missing from East Baton Rouge Parish in October, was lured across several states before being discovered, leading to at least two arrests, WAFB reported.
Ki-Shawn Crumity, 26, was arrested Thursday at his home on Davis Avenue after SWAT officers executed a search warrant and found the girl hidden in the basement.
A second man, Ronald Smith, 62, of New Orleans, was arrested in Columbus, Georgia, on charges of simple kidnapping and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.
The week-long investigation began in Louisiana with the reported disappearance of the girl, who has not been named.
According to police, the girl met Crumity on Snapchat. He allegedly told her he “was to get her adopted by a trusted adult,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by CBS News. Smith and another man reportedly brought the girl from Baton Rouge to Georgia and then put her on a Greyhound bus to Pittsburgh.
At the bus station in Washington, D.C., she met a woman who asked if she needed help. The girl agreed and messaged Crumity, telling him she was bringing a friend to Pittsburgh.
They arrived in Pittsburgh and, police say, the girl, the woman and Crumity all slept in the same bed in the basement of the Davis Avenue home.
The complaint alleges that Crumity provided the girl with edibles and alcohol and sexually assaulted her “at least once or twice a day” during the week she was there.
She told investigators that Crumity admitted “he knew she was a runaway” and that “he would get in trouble.”
On Thursday, the FBI obtained a search warrant and the home was raided by a police SWAT team after the Pittsburgh Police Special Victims Unit received a report from the U.S. Marshals Service about a juvenile who went missing from Louisiana.
The girl later told authorities that being at the hospital after her rescue was “the safest she ever felt,” according to the complaint.
“Very proud of my LBI agents in helping to locate this child,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said. “She was groomed, exploited, and then sexually abused by strangers who found her online. This is just one example of the dangers of social media and of human trafficking.”
Crumity faces a long list of charges, including trafficking in individuals, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, and selling or furnishing alcohol to a minor. He remains held without bond at the Allegheny County Jail.
Officials say further arrests and additional charges are expected as the investigation continues.
