A 30-year-old registered sex offender was arrested for reportedly hiding a missing 17-year-old Orange County girl in his home.
On Monday, Orange County detectives contacted the Polk County Sheriff’s Office to advise that a runaway 17-year-old girl was “believed to be with a man in Dundee.” That man was identified as Alexis Diaz-Toledo, according to PCSO.
Pasco County detectives made contact with Diaz-Toledo at his residence, and he reportedly denied any knowledge of the missing teen’s whereabouts. He allegedly claimed that it had been “a couple of days” since he last saw her.
Diaz-Toledo initially refused to allow detectives to search his home. However, detectives at the scene allegedly determined that Diaz-Toledo had failed to report two vehicles being kept at his residence, which violated the terms of his sexual offender registration, according to PCSO.
The sheriff’s office stated that detectives soon entered Diaz-Toledo’s home and conducted a thorough search, finding the missing teen “hiding in (his) bedroom closet.”
The teen was returned home, and Diaz-Toledo was placed under arrest and booked into Polk County Jail. He is being charged with failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements, interfering with custody of a minor, sheltering a minor without notifying a parent, and providing false information to a law enforcement officer in a missing person investigation.
Back in 2014, Diaz-Toledo became a registered sex offender following his conviction for lewd, lascivious battery on a victim between 12 to 15 years of age.