WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Undercover Polk County cyber crimes detectives arrested a man last week who they said was attempting to lure a 13-year-old Winter Haven girl to Arizona to be his "sex slave."
Detectives traveled to Tuscon, Arizona, on Aug. 2 to arrest Kevin Dock, 30, on more than a dozen charges of soliciting a child, lewd battery and using a computer to lure a child.
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According to Polk County Sheriff's Office, Dock first encountered the Winter Haven girl online on a role-play website and then continued talking to her on the Google Hangouts app. Detectives said the suspect sent the victim pictures of himself and convinced her to do the same. Authorities described their conversations as "extremely graphic."
On July 30, the girl's parents called deputies after their daughter went missing from their home. Her parents found a Greyhound bus ticket to Arizona with Dock's name on it, detectives said. The victim later returned home and told her parents and detectives she was going to Arizona to see a friend she met online.
Detectives said they began posing as the victim online and speaking with the suspect. They learned he had given the girl directions to buy a bus ticket to come to Arizona and be his "sex slave and other stuff," Sheriff's Office officials said.
Polk County detectives obtained a warrant and, with the help of Tucson police, located Dock and made an arrest in Arizona. Tucson police are also investigating Dock after they said they found child pornography during a search of his home.
After the arrest, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd had a message for anyone targeting children: "If you prey upon a child in our county, we will arrest you. We don't care where you live, who you are or what you do for a living."
The sheriff also didn't mince words for parents, telling them they "need to be all up in their child's business, protecting them from online predators like this one," Grady said.
Dock will be extradited to Polk County and prosecuted in Florida before charges out of Arizona are filed, according to the Sheriff's Office.