On Saturday, December 30, 2023, a mother contacted the Wells County Sheriff’s Department to report her 11-year-old daughter missing. Police responded and searched the area near her home in Zanesville, Indiana. Police were able to locate the daughter’s cell phone in an area away from her house where the daughter was not allowed to go. The mother told police she had recently discovered inappropriate messages on the daughter’s phone from two individuals, one of whom she knew was an adult male, but she didn’t know the man’s name because he used multiple social media accounts under different names.
Police filed the girl as a missing person and issued a statewide Silver Alert for the 11-year-old. Additionally, multiple police agencies were contacted to aid in the search. After interviewing witnesses, police learned a white van with out-of-state license plates had been spotted in the trailer park around the time the child went missing. Witnesses said they saw two men in the van and also saw the men walking a dog in the location where the girl’s phone was found.
From the girl’s cellphone, police discovered a phone number that had called the girl’s phone 28 times in the hour before she went missing. Police learned this phone number belonged to Zackary Delozier of Edgemont, South Dakota. Officers from the Indiana State Police then began to track Delozier’s phone.
Authorities knew the suspects were travelling in a white Dodge Caravan with South Dakota plates. Utilizing Flock security cameras, police identified the white van travelling across northern Indiana in the direction of Chicago. At 12:11 a.m. on December 31, Delozier’s van was spotted in Wisconsin and his cellphone was tracked across the state.
Indiana State Police notified the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office that a vehicle involved in an Indiana Silver Alert for the abduction of an 11-year-old female was parked at the Kwik Trip in Barneveld, Wisconsin. While sheriff’s deputies were enroute they learned the vehicle was on the move and travelling south on USH 151 in Dodgeville. Dodgeville Police were dispatched and initiated a traffic stop along USH 151, shutting down the southbound lanes for approximately 20 minutes.
Inside the van, police discovered the missing girl along with Delozier, 27, Sara Gaudino, 23, and Isaiah Schryvers, 24, all of Rapid City, South Dakota. The 11-year-old told police she did not know the suspects, and could not remember how she came to be in the vehicle with them. Officers also discovered a firearm in the vehicle.
Police called the girl’s mother and asked if she knew the suspects. She said she did not, but believed one or more of them had been messaging her daughter. She also said she believed the suspects had taken her daughter against her will. The three suspects were taken into custody and charged with kidnapping of a minor, a Level 5 felony.
While it is not known what the suspects intended to do with the victim, the sexually explicit nature of Delozier’s messages to the minor indicate a very bad outcome was narrowly avoided. Because of the urgent action and close coordination of multiple law enforcement agencies, the search and rescue of the missing 11-year-old girl took less than seven hours from the time the initial report was called in.
Sources:
WPTA 21 Alive News Fort Wayne
WANE 15 Fort Wayne
WFFT Fox 55 Fort Wayne
WMTV 15 News Madison
Iowa County Sheriff’s Office
If there is something 