Mail Tribune News - `Kidnap' was a runaway

Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)

2001-07-23

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`Kidnap' was a runaway A 16-year-old girl who was reported as a kidnapping victim was found hitching a ride with a truck driver near Medford this weekend. The Georgia girl had stopped with her parents at a truck stop in the Eugene area Sunday, said Oregon State Police Sgt. Ralph Nelson. The girl disappeared at the stop and her parents called police, saying that she could only have been kidnapped. Police interviewed people at the rest stop and learned that the girl had left with a truck driver, who was heading south. OSP troopers along the freeway were alerted and pulled the truck over about 2:30 p.m. Sunday between Central Point and Medford, Nelson said. Troopers stopped the truck, approached with guns out, and separated the girl and the driver, 26. "The officers found out it was not a kidnap," Nelson said. "She had told him (the truck driver) that she was 19, and he was giving her a ride." The girl was returned to her parents. Mail Tribune Copyright �  The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA