Missing FL Girl Found Hiding In Sex Offender’s Closet: Sheriff

DUNDEE, FL — A missing 17-year-old girl from Orange County was found safe while hiding in a registered sex offender’s closet in Dundee on Monday, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

Detectives with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office contacted Polk County deputies on Monday about a runaway girl who was believed to be with a man in Dundee.

PCSO detectives went to the Shepard Avenue home of 30-year old Alexis Diaz-Toledo to look for the missing girl.

Diaz-Toledo denied knowing where the girl was and said he hadn’t seen her in a couple of days, the sheriff’s office said. Initially, he refused to let detectives search his home.

Detectives at the scene determined that Diaz-Toledo had violated the terms of his sexual offender registration by not reporting two of the vehicles kept at his home.

They eventually searched his home and found the missing girl hiding in his bedroom closet, investigators said.

The teen was returned home and Diaz-Toledo was arrested. He was charged with two counts of sex offender failing to comply with registration requirements, interfering with custody of a minor, sheltering a minor without notifying a parent and providing false information to a law enforcement officer in a missing person investigation.

Diaz-Toledo has been a registered sex offender since his conviction in 2014 for lewd, lascivious battery on a victim between 12 and 15 years old.

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