A 13-year-old girl is on her way back home after being wooed over social media to run away with a man to New Mexico.
Investigators believe Lucas Murphy, 35, drove to the Tri-Cities to pick up the girl and take her back to his home in Los Lunas, said a Kennewick police news release.
The teen had previously lived in Kennewick with her mother, and they had moved to Montana in April. Her mother let the girl come back to Kennewick to visit friends.
What the girl's mother didn't know was that Murphy had been talking with the girl for months, according to what she told a friend, court documents show.
Those conversations continued after she arrived in Kennewick, according to the documents.
The teen's friend told investigators that Murphy and the girl used Snapchat and Facetime to communicate while she was staying in Kennewick.
"(The teen) and the male (Murphy) spoke about their days and what the plan was when the male came to get her," according to documents filed in Benton County Superior Court.
The conversations included how they planned to use marijuana, drink alcohol and have sex, and investigators found inappropriate pictures that were tied to the Snapchat conversations.
A popular feature of the instant messaging app is that messages and posts are usually only accessible for a short time.
The friend also overheard the girl tell the man that she was 13, and Murphy reportedly said he was 21.
He said he was a mail delivery driver, and her friend saw him delivering packages during one of the conversations, said investigators.
On Dec. 18, her friend saw the girl take a picture of the entrance to the trailer park where she was staying.
Snapchat account
The teen told her mother and her friend's father that she planned to stay the night at another friend's home in Tri-Cities.
The teen never arrived at that girl's home, and when the friend's father went to pick her up on Dec. 19 she was gone.
The teen's mother soon found that her daughter had logged onto her tablet to use Snapchat.
She found conversations between her daughter and someone using the handle "luciddreamer462." The map associated with the name pointed to Los Lunas, New Mexico.
Investigators soon got information from her Snapchat account tying it to Murphy's account. That's when they learned he was 35.
They worked quickly with multiple law enforcement agencies in Los Lunas to arrest Murphy on Wednesday on a warrant with a $1 million bail and found the girl.
He was booked into Valencia County jail on Benton County charges of first-degree kidnapping with a sexual motivation, attempted second-degree rape of a child and communication with a minor for immoral purposes.
It's unknown if he will face additional charges in New Mexico and when he will be brought back to Kennewick.
Police in New Mexico are arranging for the girl's return to her family.
