Missing Florida girl found in motel with 24-year-old man

An 11-year-old girl who went missing from Florida has been found in a motel room in Georgia with a man accused of abducting her after they allegedly met online playing Minecraft.

Alice Amelia Johnson’s parents reported her missing from their Orlando home about 9am Sunday after they went to wake her for church.

Florida’s Orange County Sheriff’s Office immediately issued an endangered runaway alert for the girl and started tracking her cell phone.

Her phone was eventually tracked to the Holiday Inn Express in Macon, Georgia on Sunday afternoon.

Alice Amelia Johnson, 11, was found in a Georgia Holiday Inn on Sunday with 24-year-old John Peter Byrns after she had been reported missing from her home in Florida earlier that day

The FBI and Georgia’s Bibb County Sheriff’s deputies were brought in to rescue Alice.

Authorities found her inside one of the hotel rooms with 24-year-old John Peter Byrns at about 5pm.

Byrns, of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, was arrested and is being held by the FBI.

Alice’s father, Steve Johnson, told authorities he last saw his daughter on Saturday night when she went to bed.  

Police are yet to reveal how Alice and Byrns came to be in contact, or if anything may have happened to her. 

It is also not clear how Alice went to Georgia.  

John Peter Byrns, 24, of Hoffman Estates, Illinois was arrested and is being held by the FBI after being found in the motel room with Alice Amelia Johnson.

John Peter Byrns, 24, of Hoffman Estates, Illinois was arrested and is being held by the FBI after being found in the motel room with Alice Amelia Johnson.

Authorities tracked the girl's phone and it eventually pinged at the Holiday Inn Express in Macon, Georgia (above) on Sunday afternoon

Authorities tracked the girl’s phone and it eventually pinged at the Holiday Inn Express in Macon, Georgia (above) on Sunday afternoon

Alice’s father told WESH that they knew she had been playing Minecraft online with a person claiming to be a young woman from Illinois. 

He said the pair had never met and he never thought Alice might have been in danger.

‘This is someone that she’s been communicating with online under the guise of being a female and basically has just pulled her into a trap, so to speak,’ Johnson said.

‘We felt like we were having oversight into her personal world… but there’s always just that danger that you’re not possibly, you know keeping a close enough eye.’

Alice’s parents drove to Macon on Sunday night and were reunited with their daughter.

Police have not yet revealed how Alice and Byrns came to be in contact. Alice’s father said he knew she had been playing Minecraft online with a person claiming to be a woman from Illinois

 



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