A four-year-old North Carolina girl who had gone missing was rescued in Texas on Friday after authorities found her with suspected human traffickers, police said.
Aubriana Recinos and her mother, Carmen Lowe, 23, had been reported missing since July 8, according to a Thursday tweet from the Fayetteville Police Department.
The Fayetteville Police Department issued an endangered child warning upon finding out that Lowe took her daughter out of the state because it violated a court-ordered child custody agreement.
But authorities found Aubriana Friday after raiding a home in Lewisville, Texas, that was under FBI investigation for human trafficking, WNCN reported.
“The child was pretty much given to a pimp, an associate of a pimp or family of the pimp for keeping,” said Maj. Robert Ramirez with Fayetteville police, adding that the girl’s mother was not home and arrested in Louisiana the day before.
Lowe was arrested on Thursday in New Orleans after being served a warrant for violating a custody order. The FBI tracked her credit card records and cell phone to find her location.
Authorities added two other charges to Lowe’s rap sheet on Friday morning, charging her with alleged prostitution and theft under $1,000. She was being held at Orleans Parish Jail.
Authorities say Lowe traveled to New Jersey as well as Texas before she ended up in New Orleans. A police report stated that the child was not hurt when she was found, and is expected to go back to North Carolina to be in her father’s custody.
“Going on 53 days, it’s been hard,” Aubriana’s father, Mario Recinos, said. “We didn’t know where she was at.”
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