MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — A 19-year-old man from Nebraska used popular gaming and messaging apps to groom two teenage sisters he later kidnapped in Florida, according to investigators.
During a recent news conference, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said Hser Mu Lah Say used Roblox gaming to connect with 12-year-old Lunabella and 14-year-old Kaelani Lozano last summer.
“There is no application online that is safe ... If you can communicate with somebody away from your house in the quiet of your room, it can be a problem, so parents have to be vigilant,” Budensiek said. “In this case, they were vigilant.”
Budensiek said the teens’ family told Martin County Sheriff’s Office deputies that they had set limits on Roblox after the girls received gift deliveries, and had seized their phones after they went to a park without permission on Saturday morning.
“The family members suggested to our deputies that an individual on that app may be involved,” Budensiek said.
Deputies learned the girls used a family tablet with the Snapchat messaging app to continue communication with Lah Say before they vanished at about 5 p.m. on Saturday in Indiantown.
“Deputies got hold of the digital device that these girls were using to communicate with that individual, saw that the Snapchat app was deleted from the device, had the thought process to reload the device, and when they did, they could see a constant thread of communication between this individual and these two young girls,” Budensiek said.
The messages between Lah Say and 14-year-old Kaelani, whom he referred to as “baby,” were “romantic” and not “sexually explicit,” but one said, “I drove all this way, please don’t leave me hanging,” according to Budensiek.
The FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, and the Florida Highway Patrol also stepped in to help after MCSO deputies suspected Lah Say had driven about 23 hours from Omaha, Nebraska, to Indiantown, Florida, and picked up the girls at about 6:45 p.m. on Saturday.
“We know our suspect was repeatedly warning these young girls that he could get in a lot of trouble for what he was fixing to do, so he knew he was violating the law,” Budensiek said.
Georgia Highway Patrol troopers reported stopping a Honda CRV, arresting Lah Say, and rescuing the teenage girls shortly after 12:15 a.m. on Sunday in Lowndes County.
“I think we prevented something disastrous,” Budensiek said.
Lah Say, who is awaiting extradition to Martin County, faced four charges: Two counts of kidnapping and two counts of interfering with child custody.
Matt Kaufman, the chief safety officer for Roblox, released a statement describing the case as “deeply troubling” and reporting that the company was assisting with the investigation.
“Roblox has robust safety policies to protect users that go beyond many other platforms, and advanced safeguards that monitor for harmful content and communications,” Kaufman wrote, adding that a new measure includes “age checks globally to limit kids and teens to chatting with others their age by default.”
A spokesperson for Snapchat also released a statement saying the company was working “closely with law enforcement” during the investigation.
“While no single safety feature or policy can eliminate every potential threat online or in the world around us, we continuously adapt our strategies as criminals evolve their tactics,” the Snapchat spokesperson wrote. “We’ve built safeguards, launched safety tutorials, partnered with experts, and continue to invest in features and tools that support the safety, privacy, and well-being of all Snapchatters.”
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