Missing Teen-Ager Found Restrained in Virginia, Possible Internet Relationship

By Charles Sheehan Associated Press Writer Published: Jan 5, 2002

PITTSBURGH (AP) - FBI agents on Saturday sought to interview a 13-year-old girl who disappeared from her home on New Year's Day, possibly to meet a man she met on the Internet, then was found restrained in a home in northern Virginia. A tip to the girl's location had come from a man in Florida who saw a Web cam photo of her and matched it with a newspaper photo of the missing teen, the FBI said.

Scott Tyree, 38, of Herndon, Va., was arrested Friday in the disappearance of the girl, said FBI Agent Jack Shea in Pittsburgh.

Tyree was charged with illegal transportation of a minor for the purpose of engaging in illegal sexual conduct, a felony that carries up to 15 years in prison, said U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan. Additional charges might be considered, Buchanan said.

FBI agents broke into Tyree's home on Friday afternoon and found the 13-year-old "restrained within the residence," Shea said. Tyree was not at home, but was located about a half hour later, Shea said.

Authorities would not specify how the girl was restrained or give any other details.

She was expected to be reunited with her family Saturday, said FBI Agent William Crowley in Pittsburgh.

Authorities said the girl had been taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital for evaluation Friday, but hospital officials said she was not in the hospital's patient information system Saturday morning.

There was no word on when or where she was to be reunited with her family, and there was no answer at her parents' telephone number Saturday.

Shea said the girl appeared to have no life-threatening injuries but officials were uncertain about how successful they would be at interviewing her.

"There's a question of how much they're going to be able to (ask) ... depending on her state of mind," Crowley said.

FBI agents and a "high-tech crimes task force" went to the family's home and examined files on the girl's computer, which family members said she used often.

Neighbors waiting for the girl's return on Saturday had decorated about a dozen trees with yellow ribbons. Darlene Landi, 34, and her daughter Paige, 8, were waiting to welcome her home with a dozen roses.

"When I first heard (about the situation) my stomach just, you know, dropped," Landi said. "I didn't know what to think."

Another neighbor, Mary Ann Macino, 49, said she had gone out to buy yellow ribbon after speaking to the girl's father.

"When I heard, all I could think of was I had grandchildren this age. I was devastated," Macino said. "Being a neighbor, I just wanted to let her know, 'I'm here to help you.'"

Neighbors said the teen-ager talked a lot about being an aspiring model and liked to show her modeling pictures. Landi said she had known the girl since she was a toddler.

"She's a very nice girl," she said. "Paige often went over and played with her. She was very quiet - quiet and shy. (The girl's mother) told me she didn't have a boyfriend."

On Thursday evening, a caller told FBI agents in Tampa, Fla., that he had been in contact with a man on the Internet who said he had brought a girl from Pennsylvania, Shea said.

Shea said the man told FBI agents Tyree sent him a Web cam image of the girl. The man, whose name was not released, went to the Web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and saw a photo of a girl accompanying a story of a possible abduction. The photo resembled the image he had seen, Shea said.

Investigators traced a Yahoo Internet account to Tyree, Shea said.

Tyree is divorced and has a 12-year-old daughter who lives with her mother in Stockton, Calif. Sarah Tyree, 34, said her daughter returned from visiting her father on New Year's Day, the same day the 13-year-old girl disappeared from her Pittsburgh home.

The 13-year-old disappeared from her home with $200 in Christmas money and without a winter coat. Her parents said they believed she had gone to her room after dinner on New Year's Day, but now think she may have slipped out through the front door.

Authorities believe Tyree picked her up in a car.

Tyree is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate on Monday, Shea said.

His mother, Erma Tyree of Keyser, W.Va., refused to say if her son had an attorney and otherwise declined to comment on Saturday.

AP-ES-01-05-02 1458EST

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2002

Answers

Oh, man. This sounds like the next made for cable movie.

If this was an "internet romance," where in the heck were the parents??

-- Anonymous, January 06, 2002

I agree. Where were the parents. How many times do parents have to be told to watch what their kids are doing? If we prosecuted the parents along with the kids, I think they would sit up and pay attention...

After all, they're abetting the little criminals.

-- Anonymous, January 06, 2002

Barefoot, honestly, do you have any teen age kids yourself? Because, if you don't, you just have no idea what you are in for. As far as this girl is concerned it seems she was off on an adventure. Of course, due to her own ignorance, she didn't know what she was about to get into, but she surely seems to have made a choice to try it. There is no abduction here, at least not initially. And if the girl was using the Internet a lot she certainly knew a lot about sexual possibilities. Porn and sexual invitations are an everyday occurrence on the Internet and email. The old saying is "Play with fire and get burned." This kid just chose to get involved in something stupid. She put her own self in harms way. But the guy who enticed her should face the jury, get convicted, and go to jail. He's a sex chaser/deviant.

-- Anonymous, January 07, 2002

No, I don't have any kids. Does that mean that I cannot express my opinion on this subject? No.

I wasn't trying to paint this girl as a criminal. I was referring to kids in general who have become little terrorists with their parents' tacit approval which is shown by the parent's complete lack of knowledge of what their little 'angels' are up to.

This girl, while not being monitored by her parents, managed to get into some trouble. I suppose she would be considered the victim, but I think she was partly responsible for the crime for abetting the man in the commission of his crime. If she hadn't responded the crime would not exist. Of course he may have managed with another little girl, but that is neither here nor there.

Take the kids involved at Columbine, for example. The parents should have had some idea of what their kids were in to. Don't you think?

Then we have the little miscreants that go around spray painting anything that stands still long enough. Where are their parents?

I thought that the school system, I think it was here in Miami-Dade County, had a great idea when they announced that they would require the parents to serve the detention periods along with the kids. I don't think it was ever implemented, but it sure got the parent's attention. LOL

If parents were more involved with their offspring, the cost in tax dollars used to deal with the miscreants would drop.

I do not mean to slam single parents. [<--PC view as not all single parents are female.] It isn't just kids from single parent homes who get into trouble.

We had an incident at a synagogue near a public high school. This school was different from most local public high schools in that the student parking lot had cars that were collectively worth more than the county budget. [My alma mater, btw.] Some few students went and spray painted anti-jewish epithets on the new building just after it was given its final coat of paint just prior to the first service. Turned out that one of the little 'angels' was the son of a police officer. He was furious with his son, and made it clear to him that he would have to pay for what he had done. And pay he did. He worked to rid the building of his and his friends handiwork. He was required to apologize publicly [by his father] and he did. And he has a record that will keep him out of most of the prestigious schools of higher learning, if I recall correctly. The family moved away afterward.

I do have nieces and nephews and cousins and second cousins and so forth, and hear all about them. I also read the news.

My neighborhood has many children of various ages. I see them everyday. For a while, there was a bunch of hooligans on a school bus and they would persecute this one kid most every afternoon when they got off the bus. The bus stop and timing was about the same time I used to leave for work. I called the cops and reported the instance when I saw how rough it was on the kid. It was the second time I saw it happen. Three weeks of seeing it caused me to call three more times. [I didn't go that way everyday at the same time, btw. I heard later from a neighbor who lives closer to the bus stop that it was a regular occurrence. she did not have any kids on that bus.]

Now, there are at least three adults in attendance at the bus stop when the kids are dropped off. I suspect they are parents, but don't know for sure as none of them live on my street. For three days there was an un-marked police van in a nearby driveway. Yes, I could tell because I knew who lived there and they did not have a van or work for the county. [county tag]

After a while I noticed there were and still are four or five kids that work weekly on the grassy area of our residential main street keeping it nice and neat. It used to be a few neighbors that did the work. I recognized two of them as being on that bus.

I suspect that the police spoke to the parents and that was the solution they chose to keep the kids from having records? Not knowing the results personally I can't be sure, but I do know that I have not seen any fights at the bus stop for a long while, and I do enjoy the cleanliness of the main street area which I do travel regularly.

-- Anonymous, January 07, 2002