Hall County deputies foil alleged kidnapping attempt

Kenton Jesus Enamorado Ventura faces various charges in the alleged abduction of a North Carolina girl.Photo byHall County Sheriff's Office

A Louisiana man was arrested on Wednesday during a routine traffic stop after investigators say he abducted a 12-year-old girl from North Carolina.

Kenton Jesus Enamorado Ventura, 18, is charged with using wireless communication while driving and driving while unlicensed, the Hall County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

A deputy stopped Ventura’s vehicle on the southbound side of Interstate 985 near Spout Springs Road at about 3 p.m. on Wednesday, the sheriff’s office said.

During the stop, deputies said they spoke with Ventura and the girl and discovered that their accounts of their relationship did not match, according to the news release.

The sheriff’s office said Ventura is believed to have met the girl online and used WhatsApp to communicate with her for about a year. Deputies believe he drove from Louisiana to North Carolina on Wednesday and picked up the girl around noon at her home.

The girl’s father was unaware that she had left, investigators said.

The sheriff’s office said the two were believed to be heading to Ventura’s home in West Monroe, Louisiana. Deputies arrested Ventura on the traffic charges and booked him into the Hall County Jail, where he remained on Friday, July 12.

The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina is handling the abduction investigation, the sheriff’s office said.

Ventura’s arrest is in “no way related’ to the ongoing search for Maria Gomez-Perez, says Hall County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Derreck Booth. Maria, also 12, disappeared from her home in Gainesville on May 29. She has not been seen or heard from since.