A 17-year-old girl held captive in an Oregon basement for 17 months was rescued after managing to send a plea for help through an online video game, according to federal law enforcement filings cited by ABC News.
Kylie Arellano, who went missing from Garden City, Utah, in May 2024 at age 15, was freed from a Huntington residence on December 1, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Adam Hunter Hamel, 39, was arrested on a nearby roadway and subsequently charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with interstate kidnapping and enticement of a minor.
Hamel used Snapchat to lure Arellano by posing as a person with a disability and promising money, the affidavit stated. On May 29, 2024, he drove to Utah, picked her up, threw her cellphone into a river immediately after she entered the vehicle, and drove her over 500 miles to his home in eastern Oregon.
Stephanie Coleman, Arellano’s mother, received a text message from her daughter saying goodnight on the night she disappeared, but found her coat and belongings left behind the next morning before reporting her missing.
Investigators spent more than a year searching for the teenager without success, while Hamel allegedly used pliers to pull out her braces to alter her appearance and forced her to sleep facing a wall with a knife placed under her pillow.
The turning point in the 521-day captivity arrived when Hamel provided Arellano with a Wi-Fi-only mobile device that lacked a cellular plan. In mid-November, she logged into the social deduction game Among Us and disclosed her prolonged disappearance and confinement to another player.
The fellow gamer alerted their parents, who then contacted the FBI. Federal agents established a video call with Arellano to verify her identity and observe the weapon beneath her pillow before coordinating with local law enforcement to raid the property and secure her release.
Federal prosecutors filed charges against Hamel on December 2. Investigators are continuing to examine whether digital messaging and gaming platforms are being utilized by predatory networks targeting adolescents.
Hamel kept Arellano locked in the basement of his Huntington, Oregon, home and introduced her to a roommate as his new girlfriend to avoid arousing suspicion from people outside the household.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office charged Hamel with interstate kidnapping and the illegal enticement of a minor for sexual exploitation following his December 1 arrest.
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