On the evening of June 16, 2024, an Indiana father contacted the Logansport Police Department to report his 14-year-old daughter missing after seeing her enter an unknown black SUV. Police later determined the vehicle to be a black Dodge Durango with unknown registration.
Investigators with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office were able to ping the girl’s cellphone and identified the suspect vehicle with Texas registration travelling westbound on U.S. 36 near Hannibal, Missouri.
Shortly before 2 a.m. on June 17, Cass County authorities contacted the Missouri State Highway Patrol with information on the missing teen.
Then an officer with the Shelbina Police Department notified state troopers when he spotted the black Dodge Durango with Texas plates passing slowly through Shelbina.
Meanwhile, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office traced the suspect vehicle as it traveled along Highway 36 through Clarence, Missouri around 2:11 a.m.
About six minutes later, state troopers spotted the SUV near the intersection of Highway 36 and Kellogg Avenue east of Macon. A traffic stop was initiated and troopers observed a girl in the backseat of the vehicle. The girl identified herself as the missing teen and was immediately removed from the vehicle.
The five suspects in the vehicle were all arrested and charged with second-degree kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child. The suspects were Marlon Aguilar, 44, from Honduras, Arturo Eustaquio, 41, from Mexico, Noe Guzman Hernandez, 24, from Mexico, Daniel Ruiz Lopez, 19, from Honduras, and Carlos Funez, 56, from Honduras.
According to court documents, the men were trafficking the young girl to California to a man she met on the internet.
Thanks to the urgent action of authorities in Indiana and Missouri, the young girl was rescued unharmed less than six hours after her father reported her missing.
Sources:
Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, Indiana
ABC 17, Columbia, Missouri
Fox 59, Indianapolis, Indiana
13 KRCG, Columbia-Jefferson City, Missouri
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