Missing Ohio teen located in Florida after logging in to World of Warcraft account
Missing Ohio teen located in Florida after logging in to World of Warcraft account
Authorities say a missing Ohio teen was recovered in Florida after she logged in to an online video game at the home of the man who took her.
First, I'm glad they found the kid. No one deserves to be manipulated and taken like that.
Second, dude, wtf? He's in his 30s and thinks that this is something he should do? The kid is literally half his age, and he seems to think that they're in any position for a genuine romantic relationship? Gross.
Male role models are had to come by and harshly spoken of as highly as the “successful” or “richest” ones are. Just look at Tater Tot’s if you really, in 2024, need a concrete example.
Blame it on some of the worlds addiction to insatiable consumption
The bigger question is what was the drive like back to Florida. That's 14 hours and bathroom breaks
As a long time WoW player, the girl part is really the least shocking part. The 16 year old playing WoW is the most shocking.
Sheltering an unmarried minor? tf?
Child marriage is legal in Afghanistan and many US states.
It’s not illegal if you marry your victim.
Yeah I know it’s legal in Ohio, and I’m pretty sure it’s legal in every state from here to Florida, including Florida.
California, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Washington are the only states without a minimum marriage age, and Hawaii and Kansas are only states below 16 as the minimum. In any case, it also requires parental consent, judicial approval, and/or emancipation. Florida is one the most strict states in this regard.
https://lemm.ee/comment/8040027
Legal loophole basically according to this person
Specifically Florida Statue 984.085.
A person who is not an authorized agent of the Department of Juvenile Justice or the Department of Children and Families may not knowingly shelter an unmarried minor for more than 24 hours without the consent of the minor’s parent or guardian or without notifying a law enforcement officer of the minor’s name and the fact that the minor is being provided shelter
Serious topic aside: Did he thought if he dresses like Waldo he can't be found?
So that's a jail outfit FYI.
Thanks, didn't know that.
As a punishment they refused them the nice caps.
I always suspected Waldo was a felon on the run. Or an old-timey pirate ship crewmate, Or a candy cane
Dude "faces felony charges of traveling to meet a minor to engage in sexual activity and interfering with child custody, as well as a misdemeanor charge of sheltering an unmarried minor, according to jail records." And yet his bail is only $6k. WTF!
I'm going to miss these wacky thumbnail mismatches once kbin gets that fixed.
Right
Paywalled article.
Hmm, wasn't paywalled for me, but here you go:
DUNNELLON, Fla. (AP) — A missing Ohio teen was recovered in Florida after she logged in to an online video game at the home of the man who took her, authorities said.
Thomas Ebersole, 31, was arrested last Wednesday at his Dunnellon home, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. The area is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Tampa. Police in Lima, Ohio, about 80 miles ( 130 kilometers) northwest of Columbus, had reported the girl missing on Dec. 28.
The FBI had contacted the sheriff’s office earlier that day to request help in locating the missing 16-year-girl. Investigators determined that her World of Warcraft account had been used at a local address, which turned out to be Ebersole’s home, authorities said. His World of Warcraft account was also accessed at the location. World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
Investigators made contact with Ebersole at his home, and he initially denied knowing the girl, officials said. But he eventually admitted that he had driven to Ohio to meet the teen and brought her back to his home, authorities said. Ebersole also told investigators that he was in a romantic relationship with the girl and was going to hide her in his home until they could get married.
Ebersole provided detectives with online messages that further outlined his plans to meet the girl in Ohio and have sex with her, despite knowing that he was committing a crime, officials said.
Ebersole faces felony charges of traveling to meet a minor to engage in sexual activity and interfering with child custody, as well as a misdemeanor charge of sheltering an unmarried minor, according to jail records. He was being held on $6,000 bail. Jail records didn’t list an attorney for Ebersole.
Hmm, wasn’t paywalled for me, but here you go:
Thank you for that.
Yeah, it was definitely one of the obnoxious ones too that covered up the whole screen, so I couldn't even read it in a half-sized view area.
Edit: I just went back and checked the link again, and it wasn't paywalled the second time, so something changed between the two viewing attempts. When I tried initially I got the paywall multiple times, even after opening/closing tabs.
Probably in reference to underaged spouses, basically you can't be charged with anything related to having a kid in your home if said kid is your spouse
That whole statement is still really problematic. Not your problem, but damn.
You have to already get judicial approval to marry, and it's literally only 17-year-olds being allowed to marry 18- and 19-year-olds. It's not really "having a kid in your home".
Oh yeah minors are allowed to marry adults in Ohio. It’s real fucked up. My girlfriend was a victim of it as a teenager, and it did quite a bit of damage, partly because it means your spouse is your guardian and you still don’t get all the adult rights.
When we update our laws, we'll need to make sure there's no loophole where parents can't just sign off guardian rights to a suitor. I can see religious fundamentalists just "marring" off their kids and skipping the common law part. Too much sketchy shit already happens in those isolated communities.
America still has a large problem with child marriages, as long as the parents consent to the marriage. It’s mostly a fundamentalist Christian thing; Young girl gets pregnant from an adult, then gets forced into marrying said rapist by her parents. Because now she’s not a virgin, the parents don’t want a bastard in the family, etc… Many states also have exemptions for things like statutory rape if the rapist is married to the victim, so the rapist is allowed to continue the abuse.
It's one of those situations where it makes it so an 18 and a 17 can marry and it not be illegal, but that doesn't make it any less creepy when the age gap stretches further.
..I still think it's not okay for a 17 year old to marry lmao. You're not even a legal adult yet!
In Florida it's actually illegal if the non-17-year-old is more than two years older.