2 men facing human trafficking of child, kidnapping charges in Siler City missing teen case
SILER CITY, N.C. (WTVD) -- Two men are facing kidnapping and human trafficking charges in the case of a missing teen from Siler City.
On February 21, Siler City Police Department got a report of a missing 15-year-old.
State Bureau of Investigation agents were able to obtain, through electronic surveillance, that the victim had been abducted.
That new information allowed police to request a statewide AMBER Alert.
Two suspects were quickly identified.
Ronny Suarez and the 15-year-old teen were located at West Strider Street in Asheboro.
The other suspect, Saul Ramirez Guvara, was located at a Quality Inn in Kinston.
Both suspects were taken into custody on charges including first-degree kidnapping, human trafficking of a child, and several other charges.
SEE ALSO | AMBER Alerts highlight importance of teen online safety
Anyone with information about this case should call the Siler City Police Department at 919-742-5626.
Harnett County Teen Found, 2 Arrested
This is the second arrest in central North Carolina involving teen girls, AMBER Alerts that led to the arrest of suspects for kidnapping and trafficking charges. In an unrelated case, on Thursday, the Harnett County Sheriff's Office, the NC SBI and FBI arrest two men after an alert was issued for a 15-year-old. She was located in Dare County, N.C.
Elihue Martin Mahler, 31, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and 23-year-old Austyn Lee Cole of Kitty Hawk, face charges of felony human trafficking of a child victim, felony kidnapping, felony conspiracy to kidnap, and felony conspiracy, human trafficking.
The FBI warned parents to monitor their children's social media activity.
The common threads in the two cases in Chatham and Harnett counties is raising alarm bells for experts like Judy Paparozzi, who teaches at UNC Pembroke after decades fighting human trafficking.
"12 to 15 is a target age group. The traffickers are online trolling that guy may have worked on this girl if that was the person she was online with, he may have spent a year trying to groom her, to trust him and consider her for her to consider that he's the best thing in the world like someone... she's in love with and so forth," Paparozzi said.
According to the Child Crime Prevention and Safety Center, an estimated 89 percent of sexual advances directed at children occur in Internet chatrooms or through instant messaging.
It's proof Paparozzi says that shows that the trafficking industry is becoming more tech savvy and more lucrative as victims are being sold for sexual gratification.
"The profits are enormous that the trafficker can earn a quarter of a million a year on one girl and the risk of prosecution is low because how do you recognize a human trafficking victim? She's so afraid of her trafficker, even if the police pulled over her car, how would they recognize her as not his niece or his daughter," she said.
