WhatsNew2Day – Latest News And Breaking Headlines
A Kentucky man arrested after a missing 16-year-old from North Carolina was found inside a trapdoor in his home is speaking out from jail, claiming he was actually doing the girl a favor and that “she hid of his own free will.”
Zackary Jones, 34, faces more than 30 different charges, including rape, after he was arrested by Lincoln County deputies when they responded to a report of domestic violence at his home on Christmas Day.
He initially told officers the victim was not at his home on Robertstown Road in Kings Mountain, but after he was arrested on drug charges they found the missing teen in a trap door hidden under a rug.
Speaking from the Pulaski County Jail, Jones claimed he met the girl online, where she told him she was 18 and insisted he was helping her, he reported. WKYT.
‘She hid of her own free will. In fact, she was in bed when the police officers first came in,” Jones said.
Zackary Jones, 34, accused of raping a missing 16-year-old girl, speaks from jail claiming she was there of her own free will and that he was helping her.
Lincoln County deputies found the missing teen inside a trap door when they responded to a report of domestic violence at his home on Christmas Day.
‘Her grandmother kicked her out. She didn’t look that age (16). She had all kinds of piercings.
The teen’s grandfather, Eugene Baughman, said she ran away from her grandmother and then ran into Jones.
Baughman said: ‘She started taking away his privileges, his phone and stuff. That’s when she got angry and left. She wouldn’t come home.’
‘I don’t think he was rescuing anyone. I think she was trying to find someone else to victimize.
Jones brought the 16-year-old home and told her family she was 18. It was her mother, Ronda Jones, who finally called the police when she thought they were having a domestic dispute.
“They were arguing, yelling and screaming. It was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do,” Jones’ mother said. WRAL.
After initially denying that the girl was in the home, Jones led officers to the home shortly afterward, according to a police citation.
Officers noticed drugs in plain sight, which Jones attempted to dispose of in a wood stove in his bedroom.
Authorities then detained Jones and left him in the back seat of a police vehicle.
They then returned to try to find the missing girl when they noticed a trap door hidden under the bedroom carpet.
Zackary Jones claimed that he met the girl online and that she claimed to be 18 years old and that her grandmother kicked her out.
The girl, a missing 16-year-old from Fayetteville, North Carolina, who has not yet been identified, was found.
Officers said the victim was “heavily high” when Jones was arrested.
The 34-year-old man admitted to using drugs and “engaging in sexual activity” with the girl. The age of consent is 16 in Kentucky.
However, the girl later stated that Jones had taken her from North Carolina and brought him back to her home.
She told police he had contacted her about two or three weeks earlier and claimed he was 19 years old.
When he got home, she said he looked older and he admitted he lied. However, she lied again and said that she was 25 years old.
The victim only discovered Jones’ real age when he arrived home and met his family.
Jones’ mother said: ‘I asked him how old he was. He said, “she’s 19.” So I took it as the truth. I believed him, because many girls looked older than they are.
‘To me, she came willingly with him. I feel like they had probably been talking. I don’t know how long she’s been texting him. From what the police said, she was not happy where she was and she felt taken care of and she came with him.
The victim told officers that after finding out her real age, he threatened her and made her promise to tell anyone who asked that she was 18 years old.
Jones opened the door to his home on Robertstown Road in Kings Mountain and told authorities the victim was not there. They soon found her in a trapdoor in her bedroom under a rug.
The teen then alleged that Jones was armed with a gun and, on multiple occasions, had threatened to kill her.
‘I was shocked. “I always get angry when he lies to me,” Rhonda Jones said.
‘No matter what he has done, he is my son and I love him. I’m sorry he did it and that’s all I can say.
The teen said a Lincoln County deputy stopped them the night she was trafficked and said she would shoot the deputy if he tried to get one of them out of the vehicle.
Jones faces about a dozen charges, including rape, sodomy, strangulation, terroristic threats and resisting arrest.