North Carolina 16-Year-Old Girl Found Under Trap Door in Home of Kentucky Man She Met Online: Police

A missing 16-year-old North Carolina girl was found hidden beneath a trap door after her alleged abductor’s mother called police because the girl and her son had been arguing, according to authorities in Kentucky.

On Dec. 25, Rhonda Jones reported the altercation between her son and the teenager, WTVQ reported.

“They were arguing, yelling and screaming," Rhonda Jones told WRAL. "It’s probably the hardest thing I had to do.”

Officers responding to the home only found 34-year-old Zackery Jones, who told them a “woman” had been there but left. After the officers spotted alleged drug paraphernalia in the home Zackery Jones allegedly grabbed the items and tried to toss them into his wood stove, WKYT reported, citing police.

Zackery Jones was then taken into custody.

After placing him in a patrol car, deputies returned to the house and found a teenage girl beneath a trap door covered with a rug located in the suspect's bedroom, officials said.

Rhonda Jones said she wasn't aware of the trap door or the drug paraphernalia in her son’s bedroom because she “never went up there,” WRAL reported. She told the station she was “shocked” to learn the girl was 16 since her son allegedly told her she was 19.

The girl had been missing from her grandmother’s home since Dec. 6, when Zackery allegedly drove to Fayetteville, North Carolina, and brought her back to his Lincoln County, Kentucky, home after communicating with her online, authorities said.

He initially told the girl he was 19, but when she asked why he looked older than his pictures, he said he was 25, according to WRAL. Jones also allegedly admitted to raping the girl on at least 10 occasions after getting her high on marijuana and crack, police said.

When speaking with investigators, the girl claimed Jones had a gun and threatened to kill her multiple times, and she alleged he told her to always say she was 18, according to police.

Zackery was arrested and faces multiple charges that include assault, strangulation, two counts of unlawful transaction with a minor, resisting arrest, unlawful imprisonment, drug paraphernalia, possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence, rape, sodomy, use of a minor in a sexual transaction by electronic means, and terroristic threatening.

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He could also be facing charges in North Carolina in connection with the alleged kidnapping, according to authorities.