A Florida man has reportedly admitted he drove to Ohio, where he picked up a 16-year-old girl he met while gaming online, and brought her back to his Dunnellon home with the intention of eventually marrying her.
The FBI linked the missing person case from Lima, Ohio, to Florida when they found that both the girl’s and 31-year-old Thomas Ebersole’s World of Warcraft accounts had been accessed from the same address in Dunnellon, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said. They contacted the sheriff’s office on Wednessday for assistance.
The address belonged to Ebersole, who initially told officers he didn’t know the missing teen but later said he was “in a romantic relationship with the juvenile victim and was going to hide her in his home with plans for her to become his wife,” the sheriff’s office said.
Investigators viewed messages from the Discord messaging app that “further outlined his plans to mee the victim in Ohio and engage in sexual activity despite knowing he was committing a crime.”
Ebersole has been charged with traveling to meet a minor to engage in sexual activity, interfering with child custody, and sheltering an unmarried minor. He is being held without bond.
