GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Police in Ohio found a missing girl from Hall County with a 34-year-old guy. She had been missing for several hundred miles.
In May, Maria Gomez-Perez, 12, was last seen leaving her garage. Since then, her family has been looking for her. Andres Gomez got a message from his daughter on Facebook last week. This is what Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch said helped them find her. Her dad told her that he got the message.
“I was scared to tell her.” “I didn’t even think it was her,” Andres Gomez said as someone translated his Spanish message into English.
The deputies were able to do something.
The members of our Special Investigations Unit were able to find the Facebook page’s IP address and the phone number that went with it. “They were able to find the phone at a house in Dover, Ohio,” Couch said.
When police went to Ohio, they found the Georgia girl with a guy they said she met online through apps like Facebook Messenger.
Couch said that Maria Gomez-Perez sent Antonio Agustin-Ailon a message in May saying she was unhappy and wanted to leave home. It’s said that Agustin drove from Ohio several hours to pick her up on May 29. He is in jail in Ohio right now and will likely be charged there as well as in Georgia.
Maria’s dad is glad she was found.
Andres Gomez said, “Thank God I did trust God that she came back and is still alive.”
People in the community who helped the family look for Maria are happy with how things turned out.
“A lot of ties you get these results, but it’s a bad result, and we can say that she’s safe, she’s alive, she’s here, she’s coming, and she’ll be with her father again,” said Art Gallegos, a supporter of the family.
The case needs more work to be done. Maria Gomez-Perez will be asked more questions by investigators about her missing, and Agustin-Ailon’s home will be searched by Ohio police.