Alleged kidnapper travels 14 hours to meet 11-year-old Bakersfield girl
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The sheriff confirmed the 11-year-old girl who was reported missing Sunday and later found in Utah, had an online relationship with the adult man who took her.
Court documents reveal it all began on the social media platform Snapchat. Sunday morning the girl was reported missing from her home in East Bakersfield.
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The Sheriff’s Office called all its resources: uniformed deputies, search and rescue and detectives.
After searching for hours, detectives began searching a computer in the girl’s home, and discovered she had a relationship with a 29-year-old man from Colorado.
Court documents obtained by 17 News, showed the man and the girl also exchanged inappropriate video chats showing explicit material.
The Sheriff says the man traveled from Colorado to Bakersfield early Sunday morning, where he picked the girl up, and started his return trip home with her.
The man was identified as 29-year-old Joshua Michael Stehle from Thornton, Colorado.
Stehle threw the girl’s phone out of the window of the car as they drove, to avoid law enforcement tracking her phone.
Court documents also showed he gave the girl a promise ring, told her he was going to marry her when she was 18 years old and insisted they were in a relationship after inappropriately touching her in his vehicle.
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Kern deputies alerted officers along the route and the man was stopped on Interstate 70 in Salina, Utah: 9 hours and 600 miles from Bakersfield.
He was arrested, a gun was seized and the girl was rescued. Deputies flew her back to Bakersfield.
Sheriff Donny Youngblood stated it was a classic case of grooming.
“This is exactly what we talk about with the media and with parents about knowing what your child is doing, knowing when they’re online, the places they go to. I think you can get the picture of what transpired in this particular case. The city had one not too long ago that ended with the child being killed if you all recall.”
That was the case of 12-year-old Patricia Alatorre.
Armando Cruz, the man convicted of murdering Alatorre– met her through social media and convinced her to send inappropriate pictures of herself.
He then blackmailed her with those images until she met up with him. She was raped and strangled to death.
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