10-Year-Old Kidnapping Victim Found In Motel 6 Wearing Dog Collar

LAKELAND, FL – A 23-year-old Miami man is facing kidnapping and child molestation charges after Polk County Sheriff’s deputies found him in a motel room with a 10-year-old girl wearing a dog collar.

“This is one of the most sick things you can ever imagine,” said Polk Sheriff Grady Judd of the scene that greeted officers when they knocked on the door of the Motel 6 on U.S. 98 and Griffin Road in north Lakeland.

Judd said the caretaker of the Lakeland girl came home Tuesday afternoon, March 27, and discovered the girl, who turned 10 in January, missing from the home. The girl left a note saying that she’d gone with a female friend.

However, Judd said the person that picked up the girl was not female and certainly wasn’t a friend.

He said Jonathan Diaz Fundora of Miami, a Burger King manager, spent six weeks grooming the girl on social media and in gaming chat rooms in preparation to meet her for role-playing sex games.

On Tuesday, Fundora drove from Miami to Lakeland after making arrangements to pick up the girl at the end of the street where she lives.

Judd said it took sheriff’s deputies just 35 minutes to locate Fundora and the girl.

“I can’t begin to tell you how proud I was of our patrol response, Judd said.

Deputies checked the girl’s computer and found her conversations with Fundora. They realized that the girl was the victim of a sexual predator and surmised he would want to find a place where he could be alone with the child.

Deputies began checking local motels and got a hit at Motel 6.

“They knocked on the door and he opened it wearing his underwear,” Judd said. “They went into the room and found the child hiding in the bathroom with a dog collar around her neck.”

He said the girl was dressed in a T-shirt and underwear and also had a lanyard with a pacifier hanging around her neck.

“We got there in 35 minutes and we were still were too late,” Judd said. “He sexually battered this child. But many times these children end up dead so these deputies probably saved her life.”

Judd said, when questioned, Fundora told the sheriff’s office that he thought she was 14 or 15 years old, despite the fact that his online password to communicate with her was her birth date.

“What was shocking to us was when we told this horrible creature what he was charged with, he asked if we’d give him a ride back to his car,” said Judd. “We said, ‘Dude, you’re never going to see your car again. You’re going to prison for life.’”

Judd said detectives are still examining the messages on his electronic devices so there may be more charges filed against Fundora.

So far, he’s charged with felony kidnapping, which carries a life sentence, sexual battery on a child under the age of 12, traveling to meet a minor for elicit purposes, five counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of using a computer to seduce a child.

“I can’t tell parents enough, you must know what electronic devices your children are on and you must monitor their activities because there are monsters like this one in chat rooms and game rooms who are looking for your child,” Judd said.

Video via Polk County Sheriff