Missing girl, 14, left in the woods by a man she met online: sheriff
Alexander Materne, the suspect, reportedly left a 14-year-old girl in this tent in the woods after driving her from Tennessee to Louisiana to have sexual relations with her (Tangipahoa Parish Sheriffs Office)
A 14-year-old girl reported missing in Tennessee was found safe in Louisiana, where a man she met online left her in the woods after having sexual relations with her.
According to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, the suspect, 28-year-old Alexander Materne, met the teen girl on a gaming platform online and arranged to drive from Louisiana to Tennessee to pick her up.
On Dec. 23, he drove the girl to his home in St. Rose, Louisiana, and had sexual relations with her. When she disclosed her age to him, he reportedly bought the girl a tent, food and water and dropped her off in a secluded wooded area in Tangipahoa Parish, about 42 miles from his house.
RELATED: Suspect in custody after allegedly kidnapping child he met on social media, police say
From there, Materne reportedly left and went to celebrate Christmas with his family in Jennings, Louisiana, about 160 miles from his home in St. Rose.
The teen girl’s parents were able to track Materne to Jennings and get deputies to his family’s house to question him, authorities said. He later took detectives to the girl’s tent in the woods. She’d been there for about two days.
The girl was taken to a hospital for a check-up and later reunited with her family.
Materne faces numerous charges, including aggravated kidnapping of a child and felony counts of human trafficking and carnal knowledge.
"You can’t make this stuff up. It’s a Christmas miracle that she was found safe. This thing could’ve ended badly," Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Gerald Sticker said.