ROGERS, Ark. — Arkansas State Police (ASP) have arrested a Rogers man who allegedly lured and abducted a teen from Mississippi.
A release from ASP said that on Oct. 28, Kaleb James Cannady, 33, was arrested in Benton County for abducting a 16-year-old from Brandon, Mississippi.
In the release, ASP said the boy was found unharmed.
"We developed the information that Kaleb James Cannady had driven down and met him, lured him online, and then met him in the subdivision and then absconded from that subdivision with him," Tyler Burnell, an investigator and public information officer with the Rankin County Sheriff's Department in Mississippi said.
Burnell said Sunday morning the department was called to a residence just outside the city limits of Brandon, where an individual stated there was a teenager missing from the residence.
"We couldn't prove that he had been abducted at that point in time, he was simply thought to have been a runaway," Burnell said. "During the interview with his mother, we came in some information that he had been battling depression over the deaths of two family members and thought maybe that the grief simply had been too much for him, and that he had been contemplating taking his own life."
Along with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, and the Mississippi Attorney General's Office's Cyber Crimes Task Force, with permission, Burnell said they were able to identify Cannady through viewing security cameras, as well as going through the alleged victim's devices.
Once they had a suspect, Burnell said the departments sent out a "be on the lookout," or BOLO.
"We notified [ASP] of what the situation was, and they took the proverbial bull by the horns and got to work fast," Burnell said. "The initial location that we gave them, as far as Mr. Cannady's last known residence, proved to be invalid. He had moved from that location, but they quickly worked to deduce his location."
Burnell said initial investigations show that Cannady and the alleged victim communicated through Reddit.
According to Burnell, authorities will continue to investigate the matter and execute search warrants on Cannady's devices to make sure there are no other victims.
Cannady is being held on a warrant out of Mississippi for kidnapping and online enticement.
Cannady is being held in the Benton County Detention Center, and authorities are waiting to see whether or not he waives an extradition hearing.
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