Man accused of traveling from Mississippi to Tennessee to have sex with a 12-year-old girl: police

A 20-year-old man traveled across state lines to pick up a preteen and take her to his home for sex, police said.

Memphis police said a woman called in October 2020 to report her 12-year-old daughter was missing. Detectives started to investigate and got the girl’s online messages and social media accounts, according to Fox 13 Memphis.

Investigators said Raul Antonio Villanueva-Lopez had been communicating with the victim, according to Fox 13.

Cell phone records showed Villanueva-Lopez traveled from Jackson, Mississippi, to the girl’s house in Memphis on Oct. 14, 2020, and then returned to Mississippi several hours later.

Police tracked the phone on Nov. 2 to Villanueva-Lopez’s house in Mississippi. When they went there, they found the girl and the suspect. Villanueva-Lopez was 18 years old at the time of the incident.

Villanueva-Lopez admitted to having sex with the girl, according to police.

But it wasn’t until more than a year later that Memphis police charged him rape of a child. He was booked into a Tennessee jail this week.