Young man manipulated two sisters on Roblox and Snapchat and kidnapped them

Two sisters reported missing in Indiantown, Florida, were found safe last Sunday, after being kidnapped by a young man with whom they communicated on the digital platforms Roblox and Snapchat for months, according to what the Martin County sheriff, John Budensiek, communicated this Monday, local media reported.

Preparation of several months

The teenagers, Lunabella Lozano, 12 years old, and Kaelani Star Lozano, 14 years old, began interacting last summer with Hser Mu Lah Say, a 19-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska, through the Roblox gaming platform. Subsequently, their communication moved to Snapchat. "In the communications we saw, there was a romantic conversation", indicated Budensiek, pointing out that "nothing sexually explicit has yet been found", but "there is still a lot of work to be done". According to the agents, the man prepared his victims for several months to run away with him. So, the suspect left Omaha on Friday and drove for 23 hours straight until he arrived in Indiantown, investigators pointed out. In addition, they detailed that the sisters were initially supposed to meet Lah Say in a city park on the morning of January 31, but were intercepted by a family member and punished for an unrelated reason. However, the girls managed to escape later that same day.

"They left voluntarily, but their age suggests they had been taken"

The search began after the Sheriff's Office issued an urgent alert. By searching the sisters' devices, detectives recovered from Snapchat a continuous thread of communication detailing the suspect's plan to pick up the sisters and take them out of the state. Budensiek also indicated that investigators found out that Lah Say took a photo inside a store in Indiantown, which "allowed them to start working, tracking her movements" and identify the car. Hours after the disappearance was reported, the Georgia Highway Patrol located the girls safe and sound along with the suspect in his vehicle. The 'sheriff' underlined that the sisters "left voluntarily, but their age suggests they had been taken". "I think we avoided something disastrous. Did we know what was going to happen? No, none of us knew", he continued. "If we hadn't found those girls in time, if everyone here hadn't gotten to work and found them, they would be, at least, in Omaha, Nebraska, missing", he concluded. Lah Say was arrested and faces two counts of kidnapping and two of interference with child custody.