ORANGE COUNTY, FL (WFTV/CNN) – An 11-year-old Florida girl was reunited with her parents Sunday night after she was allegedly abducted by a man who posed as a teenage girl while talking to her.
Charges are pending against 24-year-old John Peter Byrns, whom investigators found Sunday with the 11-year-old victim at a hotel near Macon, GA.
The girl was reported missing about 9 a.m. Sunday, but investigators believe she disappeared from a subdivision in Orlando, FL, Saturday night.
Deputies say Byrns drove all the way from Illinois to meet the victim.
The two had started communicating through PlayStation games, with Byrns posing as a teenage girl, according to investigators. They had also talked on the phone.
Investigators found the victim by tracking the girl’s cell phone and using some information from her mother that helped them identify the suspect.
"Her mother had given us information in reference to a particular individual she was chatting with, and that's kind of what drew us in that direction,” said Sgt. Brandon Ragan with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Byrns is being held in Georgia.
Investigators say the 11-year-old wasn’t physically harmed and has been reunited with her parents.
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