PERRY COUNTY, Ky. (WKRN) – A young Middle Tennessee man is facing charges related to the brief disappearance of a teenage girl from eastern Kentucky this week.
According to the Perry County Sheriff’s Office, a minor was reported missing from the Delphia community of Kentucky around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 25, by her father and sole guardian.
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Over the course of the investigation, deputies said they discovered a male with long hair was seen operating a gray Jeep Renegade with Tennessee plates near where the 14-year-old girl went missing.
Then, on Wednesday, June 26, officials said the same vehicle, operated by 18-year-old Thomas Charles Lange of Lebanon, Tennessee, was spotted returning the girl to the same area where she disappeared. When told by witnesses that law enforcement would arrive at the location soon, Lange reportedly sped away from Barkcamp Branch Road and kept driving towards Tennessee until he was stopped by authorities in Bell County.
During a recorded interview, the minor said she met Lange online, and they made a plan for him to pick her up and take her away from her father’s home, according to the sheriff’s office. The girl added that Lange drove her to his grandmother’s home in Tennessee.
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Officials said Lange “deprived the parents of the custody of the minor child” and “kept the juvenile from lawful custody of the juvenile’s father for over 24 hours before returning the juvenile to the general area of where he unlawfully took control of the juvenile.”
According to authorities, Lange was charged with kidnapping and custodial interference in connection with the minor’s temporary disappearance.
Read more of the latest Kentucky news “I would like to thank my detective and deputies that worked relentlessly on this case until its conclusion,” Perry County Sheriff Joe Engle said in a statement posted Wednesday night on Facebook . “I also would like to thank the father , community, and family members for relaying pertinent information and gathering information and sharing it with us to help solve this case. They played a very important role in this.”
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