By Paula Pyzik Scott

On December 24, 2023, Bluffton police officers Tyler Hochstetler and Austin Probst received a 911 dispatch to Bluffton Town Hall with little information about what or who they were looking for. Their response led to the discovery of a teen reported missing the day earlier in North Carolina.

During a search of Town Hall and the surrounding area, they approached a vehicle with Minnesota plates that was occupied by two adults who did not speak English and a teenage girl. In identifying the occupants, they connected the individuals with a notice that a 15-year-old was missing from Clemmons, N.C.

Fox 8-WGHP News reported that the adults, 37-year-old Manuel De Jesus Ayala-Mejia and 20-year-old Griselda Guadelupe Arias-Vides, were arrested by Bluffton Police and held in the Allen County Detention Center. The Davison County Sheriff’s Office (N.C.) provided warrants for Ayala-Mejia and Arias-Vides for abduction of a child and felonious restraint.

Bluffton Police Chief Ryan Burkholder told the Icon that the officers’ thoroughness “probably saved [the teen’s] life.” Burkholder said that the girl met the adults online and was told that they’d take her to see a boyfriend in California.

The Chief emphasized that parents need to know who their children are interacting with on videogame platforms and that “you really don’t know who you’re talking to during these games.”

He also noted that a language barrier with the kidnapping suspects complicated the initial contact, and that he sees a need for interpreter service in the future.

The subsequent proceedings included an extradition hearing, which Burkholder has only participated in twice in his 20-year police career.

The teen was flown back to Davidson County.

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