Charges were filed Thursday against an alleged online predator accused of luring a local boy to Florida, the Escondido Police Department confirmed.
Officials say 36-year-old Tony McLeod of Tampa, Fla., has been charged with child abduction, meeting with a minor to commit a sex offense, online enticement of a minor, contact with a minor to commit a felony and enticing a minor to produce child pornography.
On Tuesday afternoon, a 14-year-old boy was reported missing from Escondido when he didn’t come home from school.
Investigators say McLeod had traveled from Tampa to San Diego to meet the teenage boy. The pair had been talking online and McLeod had convinced the teen to leave Escondido and travel back to Florida with him.
Officials say Escondido police Det. Damian Jackson became aware of the missing boy and recognized his name as the same victim in a case he had been investigating that same day.
That case involved the minor receiving sexually explicit photographs over his cell phone.
Det. Jackson then called Det. Jeff Udvarhelyi, the detective working the missing boy case, and they were able to connect the two cases.
Working together, the Escondido police detectives were able to determine that the teen had been abducted by McLeod, an alleged internet predator who met the boy last month through an online PlayStation video game and then began contacting the boy via cell phone.
Detectives tracked down McLeod’s cell phone number and traced his phone’s location. They established that McLeod was moving north, towards Los Angeles International Airport.
Det. Jackson knew McLeod was from Tampa, and officials say he had a hunch that the suspect was trying to return to Florida.
Officials say McLeod had boarded a non-stop flight to Tampa at LAX with the teenager. He had booked the teen's boarding pass under the fake name, “Justin McLeod."
Detectives worked with airlines, the Los Angeles Airport Police and the Tampa Police Department to track down the pair.
When McLeod and the boy arrived in Florida, Tampa police officers met the airplane on the runway and arrested McLeod.
The teen was rescued by police and questioned. He has since returned home to his parents in Escondido, police said.
On Thursday, the Escondido Police Department said this case should serve as a warning to parents to closely monitor their children’s online activity and report anything suspicious to authorities.
Police say that in this case, the teenager’s parents did everything right and kept track of both his online and cell phone activity.
Last month, when the boy’s mother realized her son had been contacted by McLeod, she took the teen's phone away and shut down the internet connection at home, police said. She then notified police, which is why Det. Jackson had this case on his radar to begin with.
“This case stands as evidence parents cannot monitor the internet activity of the children too closely. When a child plays an online game [it] almost always will include chat room activity. Child predators troll these sites looking for kids to entice and manipulate. It is a sad reality in today’s cyber world but the predators go where the kids are,” the Escondido Police Department said in a statement Thursday.
McLeod’s bail has been set at $1 million. If convicted, the San Diego County District Attorney's office says McLeod could face up to six years and eight months in prison.
The investigation into the case by both authorities in Tampa and Escondido is ongoing.
