A truck driver based out of southeast Dallas has been arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping after police found a missing teenager in the cab of his vehicle, according to Little Elm Police Department.
On Sunday, Feb. 12, officers responded to a report of a critical missing 16-year-old female who went missing from her home in South Paloma Creek. According to police, an extensive search that consisted of foot patrols, vehicle grid searches, drones and tracking dogs was conducted.
Canines tracked the missing teen to a location not far from her residence, where they subsequently lost the scent of the teen, leading detectives to believe she got into a vehicle.
A "Be On the Look Out" (BOLO) bulletin was issued to law enforcement agencies across the country, with the missing teen listed as a missing and endangered person.
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On the evening of Feb. 13, detectives received a phone number that the missing juvenile had been communicating with up until she left the residence. Little Elm detectives identified a potential suspect and vehicle using multiple open-source information databases, traffic cameras, and various investigative tools. They identified the suspect as Richard S. Laird of San Antonio.
Additionally, detectives learned Laird had communicated online with the juvenile since at least October 2021 and that he was a truck driver based out of southeast Dallas. Detectives went to the location where his truck was located and found the teen alone inside the truck's cab.
When Laird returned to his truck, detectives and officers from the Dallas Police Department were assisting the victim.
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According to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by NBC 5 on Friday, Laird told detectives during an interview that he met the girl on a dating website called "ALT" and that she told him she was 18 years old. Laird admitted to police that he picked her up and took her back to his semi in Dallas and that he thought she looked young. He said he asked to see identification but that the girl told him that her parents wouldn't let her have an ID card, or even go to the park alone, but that "she swore she was 18."
Detectives said Laird concealed the girl in the cab of his truck while he went to Terrell to renew his driver's license on Tuesday. Officers reportedly found the girl in a state "‘"where she couldn’t easily escape," the affidavit said.
He was taken into custody without incident and is currently in the Denton County Jail on the charge of aggravated kidnapping with a bond set at $500,000. Additionally, detectives have served nine additional warrants for the sexual assault of a child with bonds for each charge set at $100,000. Laird's total bond amount is $1.4 million.
The juvenile was reunited with her family after being examined and medically cleared. To protect her privacy because she is a juvenile and a suspected victim of sexual assault, the teenager's name has not been included in this story.
NBC 5 asked the Dallas Police Department to provide insight on the fight against online predators, in general terms, to help parents protect their children.
“There are predators preying on not just teenagers but children as young as three or four,” said Lt. Cyrus Zafrani, the commander of DPD’s Crimes Against Children unit.
They are on the same applications your child uses, from social media to chat rooms and gaming systems, he said.
Predators pose as youth and cast a wide “net” of potential victims they can groom through promises or gifts.
Conversations often begin innocently enough over a commonality, said Zafrani.
“They’re just out there having conversations with dozens of kids and they develop those relationships over a period of time,” he said. “If you’re disciplining your child and you take their phone or tablet away and someone online promises to get them a new phone or tablet, that’s a form of grooming.”
In 2022, DPD investigated 11,000 cyber tips involving crimes against children.
“Look at the phone. Look at what the kids are doing,” said Zafrani. “If you feel your child is old enough to have a cellphone and have access to the World Wide Web and be online, then they’re old enough to have the conversation about online safety. Let them know what is acceptable and what is not. Let them know about the dangers of these predators who are lurking out there.”
Checking your child’s phone on a daily basis is always recommended, though Zafrani warns “that’s still not going to get you the full picture. There are applications that hide applications on someone’s device.”
Zafrani stresses it is important for parents to ensure their children feel safe to come to them with information even if they feel they have ‘made a mistake.’
If you believe your child has been targeted or groomed, “don’t delete anything,” he added. “Don’t confront the abuser. Just save everything and make the report to the local police department or even better to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.”
