On Saturday morning, the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) announced that following an international investigation, law enforcement authorities arrested the man near Portland and that the girl was taken to a children’s hospital as a precaution. Family members were notified early Saturday that the missing young woman had been located, with her parents having already left for Portland. The girl, who is no longer being identified due to a criminal record, went missing on June 24 after taking the bus to her high school. Her parents were informed later that evening that she had not attended any classes. “This has been an intensive investigation from the beginning,” said EPS Insp. Brent Dahlseide. Dahlseide, head of Edmonton’s crime division, said investigators were assisted by the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams, RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, FBI, US Customs and Border Patrol, city police of Oregon and the Gladstone Police Department. The man suspected in the girl’s disappearance, who is originally from Oregon, is not being named by police pending formal charges. According to Dahlseide, the pending child luring charges stemmed from evidence gathered by EPS, with further charges expected to be filed by US law enforcement agencies. “As this investigation progresses, with the support of our child protection department, there will be, I expect, many charges that will come in connection with this,” Dahlseide said. “This is a happy ending to an investigation that has been exhausting, a very difficult week for family and friends as well, not knowing where (she) is,” he added. In a social media post, the girl’s father said family members were “full of happiness and love,” thanking community members for efforts to raise awareness about his missing daughter.
JOINING THE MOVEMENTS TOGETHER
While the girl had been located safely, Dahlseide said the investigation to uncover all the details of the incident was ongoing. “It’s a unique investigation as we don’t have many times like this where we cross international borders,” Dahlseide said. “It’s pretty unique to go from province to province, but to facilitate something like that in the United States through our partners, there’s something that’s unique and it took a lot of concerted effort.” It is not known how the girl crossed the border into the US and how long the 41-year-old had been in contact with her online beforehand. When asked why an Amber Alert was not issued, Dahlseide said the criteria for an alert was not met, with investigators only having a possible description of a suspect vehicle as of Friday. At that point, EPS put together an alert when notified the man was no longer in Canada, making an alert “no longer feasible,” said Staff Sgt. James Vanderland of the EPS Historical Crimes Unit. Investigators believe the man was in Edmonton, but are still trying to trace his full movements across Canada and out of the country. “We as a research team are going to learn more in the next few days here,” Dahlseide said. Disadvantages. Paul Walker, with the Abbotsford Police Department, confirmed to CTV News that EPS was contacted on Friday, indicating the girl may have been at a fast food restaurant there. “Our frontline officers attended this location and obtained CCTV from the business confirming that the girl and the suspect were in the restaurant,” Walker said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the girl and suspect had already departed this location prior to police arrival.” Dahlseide thanked the public for all tips provided to law enforcement to assist the investigation. “As the investigation progressed, we received countless tips from across Canada,” he said. “I’d rather have 200 that we needed to look for and discount it to 199 so we could find one to get zero tips and literally have nowhere to go.” With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jessica Robb and Steven Dyer
