A 19-year-old man faces felony charges after being caught with a 14-year-old girl. It all started when the girl was reported missing by family members last week, and then discovered this week at the mall.
It's been a tense week for a Sioux Falls family after a 14-year-old girl was reported missing.
"A girl that ran away from home on the 22nd, and apparently she met up with this guy and spent several days with him," Sioux Falls Police Public Information Officer Sam Clemens said.
The problem is that the girl was only 14, and the man she was with was 19-year-old Miguel Anibal Lopez of Sioux Falls. According to the girl, Lopez told her he was only 15.
"That was kind of the reason I guess that they started initially hanging out, she thought he was the same age. She didn't realize he was an adult until after the officers found the two of them together," Clemens said.
The girl told police the two met through mutual friends and spent a lot of time together near the Nite's Inn while on the run.
"They were staying, I think it was, behind the hotel somewhere. That's where they had spent a couple of nights," Clemens said.
Police were able to catch up with them after a tip call stating the pair was inside the Empire Mall on Monday afternoon. That's where police discovered this was more than a missing person's case.
"Officers were looking into the runaway aspect of that, and they ended up discovering that the two of them had sex on a few different occasions during the time that she was missing," Clemens said.
A crime that carries several felony rape charges for Lopez.
Lopez was arrested at the mall on Monday. He is being charged with 11 different counts of second-degree rape.
It's been a tense week for a Sioux Falls family after a 14-year-old girl was reported missing.
"A girl that ran away from home on the 22nd, and apparently she met up with this guy and spent several days with him," Sioux Falls Police Public Information Officer Sam Clemens said.
The problem is that the girl was only 14, and the man she was with was 19-year-old Miguel Anibal Lopez of Sioux Falls. According to the girl, Lopez told her he was only 15.
"That was kind of the reason I guess that they started initially hanging out, she thought he was the same age. She didn't realize he was an adult until after the officers found the two of them together," Clemens said.
The girl told police the two met through mutual friends and spent a lot of time together near the Nite's Inn while on the run.
"They were staying, I think it was, behind the hotel somewhere. That's where they had spent a couple of nights," Clemens said.
Police were able to catch up with them after a tip call stating the pair was inside the Empire Mall on Monday afternoon. That's where police discovered this was more than a missing person's case.
"Officers were looking into the runaway aspect of that, and they ended up discovering that the two of them had sex on a few different occasions during the time that she was missing," Clemens said.
A crime that carries several felony rape charges for Lopez.
Lopez was arrested at the mall on Monday. He is being charged with 11 different counts of second-degree rape.