HOUSTON – Editors note: The 12-year-old has been found. Out of respect for the family’s privacy, we have removed the girl’s photo and any mention of her name in articles.
The family of a 12-year-old girl believes she may have been lured to a hotel by a grown man before possibly being abducted early Monday.
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“So around 4 o’clock this morning we realized she was gone,” said Dawnyale LittleJohn.
Littlejohn says her niece left her home in Houston in her mother’s SUV and drove to a Crystal Inn and Suites on Little York in North Harris County.
“So we started pinging her phone. We pinged the phone to this location,” LittleJohn said.
LittleJohn said staff and investigators told the family the girl met up with a man at the hotel before leaving in his 2015 black Chevrolet Tahoe.
“He pulled in next to her then he rented room 110, they went into the room together and then they left,” LittleJohn said.
“Her phone was left here which 12-year-olds don’t normally leave their phone, she’s wearing a chain as well as a Rolex, a real Rolex, it’s not fake, it’s real and a SpongeBob outfit, she had like a crop top and spandex bottoms on,” Littlejohn said.
The girl’s great grandmother says time is of the essence and worries she could be in serious danger.
“This is out of her character for any of this to be going on so I feel like she was lured into the situation,” said Wanda Short.
“We’re just scared to death, we’re just trying to hope and pray for the best,” said the girl’s aunt Shirley Jeffery.
Houston Police working this case have not yet identified the man they believe the girl left with as a suspect. The family though says a private investigator confirmed the man is from Louisiana and that the girl’s credit or debit card was used at a motel in Baton Rouge. Anyone with any information is asked to call police immediately.