By The Seymour Tribune
A multi-agency investigation led to a hotel in Pennsylvania on Wednesday night where police arrested a 38-year-old man and charged him with kidnapping a 13-year-old girl from her Jackson County, Indiana, home, after pursuing her online.
Andrew E. Howland of Lancaster allegedly drove through several states to pick up the girl early Tuesday morning, and then drove back to Lancaster County, taking the girl to two area hotels, according to a news release from the Lancaster County Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Office.
West Hempfield Township police went to the Comfort Inn on Abel Drive on Wednesday night and discovered Howland and the girl, who had been reported as a runaway to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, in a room.
West Hempfield Township Detective Sgt. George Brace and Lancaster County Detective Brent Shultz arrested Howland (on two dockets) with felony counts of kidnapping, unlawful contact with a minor, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, interference with custody of children and misdemeanor counts of indecent assault and corruption of minors.
Bail is set at a combined $575,000 and has not been posted.
For more on this story, see Monday’s Republic.
