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ROOSEVELT — A Florida man has been charged with driving to Utah to pick up a 13-year-old girl and then taking her to Wyoming.
Christopher Scott Evans, 25, of Fort Pierce, Florida, is charged in 8th District Court with child kidnapping, a first-degree felony, and harboring a runaway, a class B misdemeanor.
On March 8, Roosevelt police were notified that a 13-year-old girl had run away from her home, according to charging documents. Checking the family's security system, detectives learned the girl likely left her house about 5:20 a.m. Police were contacted by her parents just after 7 a.m.
Police found her phone still on her bed along with her Oculus virtual reality headset.
Further investigation showed that the young teen had been communicating with Evans for about a month using the VR device mainly used for gaming that is also able to connect to Facebook. The Utah Attorney General's Office believes it is the first case in the nation in which a suspected child predator contacted a victim using an Oculus.
Investigators learned that the girl had been in contact with someone with the username "monkeykingbubba," who was later identified as Evans. One of the last messages police found on the Oculus was from "monkeykingbubba" and stated "Waiting." With assistance from the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children task force, the FBI, the State Bureau of Investigations, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Uintah County Sheriff's Office, detectives pinged Evans' phone and discovered he was in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the charges state.
The girl was located by Cheyenne police about 3:40 p.m. on Thursday in the back of a semitruck. She appeared to be in "good health," according to Roosevelt police.
Utah authorities are now working to have Evans extradited back to Utah to face the charges.
