A missing Ohio teen was located in Florida after detectives tracked her through an online video game account she logged into at the home of a 31-year-old man, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in Ocala, Florida, said.
Thomas Ebersole, 31 was arrested Wednesday after detectives found the 16-year-old girl in his home by tracing her location after she logged on to World of Warcraft, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by HuffPost.
According to the affidavit, Ebersole initially told authorities that he did not know the 16-year-old but then brought her to the door. Deputies described her as “frustrated but cooperative.”
During his interview, Ebersole allegedly admitted to having a “romantic relationship” with the 16-year-old and driving thousands of miles to Ohio to pick her up, deputies said.
Detectives say he told them he knew the girl’s age and planned to the hide the teen inside his home and “have her become his wife,” according to the affidavit.
Ebersole told investigators he had initially contacted the girl through Discord, an instant-messaging app popular with gamers.
Discord messages cited in the court document revealed that Ebersole and the 16-year-old referred to each other by pet names, including “little wolf” and “My Hot Tier DH Tank.” The two also made several romantic statements, according to the document.
Ebersole left his home in Florida on Dec. 27 to pick up the teen girl, according to messages in the app cited in the document.
Deputies said they observed three bruises on Ebersole’s neck, which he said were “hickies” given to him by the 16-year-old, which she confirmed. The deputies reported that they determined the “overtly sexual” act was not “normal behavior” between a child and adult.
Ebersole was taken into custody on charges of traveling to meet a minor to engage in sexual activity, interfering with child custody and sheltering an unmarried minor.
An NBC News report shed light on the child safety issues surrounding Discord, citing 31 cases since the app’s creation in which adults were prosecuted on charges of “kidnapping, grooming or sexual assault” that allegedly involved communicating on the platform.
According to its guidelines, Discord warns users under the age of 18 to not engage in sexual conduct that puts them at risk, and it prohibits adults from soliciting sexual content from or engaging in sexual conduct with users under 18.
Discord disabled 128,153 accounts and removed 7,736 servers from July to September 2023 over instances of child safety, which included grooming or endangerment escalation, according to its third-quarter transparency report.
When contacted by HuffPost for comment on this article, Discord did not immediately offer a statement.