The same U.S. Marine who was questioned last month after a missing 14-year-old was found stashed in his barracks “has now been charged in an earlier, unrelated case.” One involving “sexual assault of a minor.”
New charges for marine
Authorities aren’t listing the identity of the suspect, other than noting he’s with the 1st Marine Logistics Group. On June 28, he was questioned “about a once-missing teenage girl found in his barracks.”
These new charges, “sexual assault of a minor and violating liberty restriction,” Camp Pendleton relates in an update, are from “an earlier, unrelated case.”
After local police got done interrogating him, the marine was “released back to his military command,” who interrogated him some more. The first girl “had been reported missing by her grandmother June 13.”
A US Marine who was questioned last month about a once-missing teenage girl found in his barracks has now been charged in an earlier, unrelated case, according to an update from the 1st Marine Logistics Group https://t.co/DnGLDKXXsD
— CNN (@CNN) August 12, 2023
While she was gone for around two weeks, she allegedly wasn’t with the suspect the entire time. She was safely returned to her grandmother by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.
The next step for the unnamed marine is a “preliminary hearing in the earlier case on [August 17] at Camp Pendleton.” That’s when his command will “review all charges and evidence” to “determine whether the case should be tried by court-martial.” They aren’t saying a whole lot until then.
“To protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation and the rights of the subject, further information is unavailable until this decision is made,” the Logistics Group notes.
A precocious runaway
Some bits and pieces floating around from various outlets relate that the girl discovered in the barracks is an “Indigenous girl” living in San Diego County.
The family isn’t sure how she ended up with the marine but are convinces she was sold to him. She has a long history of running away but this time is different and it seems she fell into the wrong hands, who trafficked her.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service claims that “the girl met the Marine on Tinder using a profile with a fake name and age of 22. The report also claims the Marine said he and the girl had sex a day before he took her to Camp Pendleton, and that text messages from the Marine’s phone show the girl admitting to lying about her age.”
Family demands info on Marine found with 14-year-old in barracks. https://t.co/BFNsvqNHNp
— Chaos In Vegas (@ChaoticVegasMan) August 8, 2023
The family says she knows nothing about any Tinder profile, which could have been operated by her captors.
As far as the claim by the suspect marine that he thought she was an adult, the family insists that’s a load of crap. No matter what the text messages say.
“She looks like a little kid. There’s no doubt about it,” her Aunt Cassandra relates. “She looks like a child, not even if she puts on makeup, she does not look like an adult. She’s not even the size of an adult. It’s very obvious she’s a child.” It doesn’t help that she’s a particularly “precocious” child.
