ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A 26-year-old man is accused of kidnapping a girl he met through Instagram, prompting a statewide Amber alert, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said Monday that Keith Edward Green Jr. was arrested.
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On Saturday, his picture was posted on an Amber alert flyer next to the 11-year-old girl who was reported missing out of Apopka. Records show the two were believed to have been traveling in a 2017 Hyundai Elantra.
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Authorities said around 10:45 p.m. Saturday that the child was found safe, but offered no further details on the circumstances of her disappearance.
An arrest warrant released Monday shows they were located in Santa Rosa County during a traffic stop on Interstate 10 after the girl’s mother showed authorities messages between Green and her child.
He told the girl to pack her bags without using any sort of backpack or suitcase that had her name or initials on it and told her they’d have to “lay low” for six or seven years because he was “risking his life to be with her” and it’d be a less serious charge once she was 16 or 17, according to the report.
Deputies said Green planned to tell people that the girl was his niece and he had custody of her because her parents died.
He faces charges of kidnapping, interference with custody, and luring or enticing a child. He’s being held at the Santa Rosa County Jail until he can be extradited to Orange County.