Photo: MARVIN RECINOS / AFP / Getty Images
A teenager from 18 years old from Northern California, reported missing 9 months ago, was found Saturday afternoon in Nevada , while her stepfather, a Hispanic, was arrested.
Katuana Nateya Whisenant , was located in Churchill County during a routine traffic stop, according to authorities.
Katuana Nateya Whisenant, 14, was found Saturday during a routine traffic stop in Nevada. Her stepfather was arrested on a charge of keeping the child from her parents. https://t.co/FIKHPTFhxF
—FOX 32 News (@fox32news) April 18, 2022
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) issued a danger alert for the disappearance of Katuana, who had last been seen on 07 of July of 2021 and it was suspected that her stepfather, Santos Flores-Román, of 39 years old, resident of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County.
This Saturday, a policeman stopped the vehicle in which Katuana was traveling with her stepfather, who was arrested and charged on suspicion of keep a minor away from their parents.
The teenager was uninjured and been healthy, Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin said.
“It’s like kidnapping a child, but different, because she ran away voluntarily,” added the police chief.
Whisenant had run away from her parents’ home in Crescent City to Santa Rosa, where she had moved in with her stepfather, according to the Press Democrat.
As the teenager is a Yurok Indian, the tribal police contacted the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which subsequently involved the FBI in the investigation.
FBI officials had scheduled a meeting with Flores-Román, and that was the moment he escaped.
“The last time we located him was in Chico, according to his license plate. Then out of the blue we got this call that they had found her. We had an arrest warrant against him (Santos Flores-Román), explained Griffin.
Because the Hispanic man had crossed borders could become a federal case.
Previously, Whisenant had run away from home to go with her stepfather, so the Crescent City authorities were sure that she was with him. They coordinated with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, the Santa Rosa Police Department, and the Sonoma County Probation Department to find her.
Katuana’s parents, residents of Crescent City, Del Norte County, were notified of their daughter’s appearance and traveled to Nevada to pick her up.
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