Ki-Shawn Crumity, 26, faces charges of human trafficking, sexual assault, unlawful contact with minors and corruption of minors after Pittsburgh police announced his arrest on Thursday. “This child was groomed, exploited and then sexually abused by strangers who found her online,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement Friday. “This is just one example of the dangers of social media and human trafficking.”
The girl disappeared around October 20 after meeting Crumity on social media. On Friday, after an investigation with several federal agents, the child was found trapped in a box covered with a sheet in the basement of Crumity’s home, in the Brighton Park neighborhood.
The child was taken to a hospital, where signs of sexual abuse were found.
According to the news channel “WTAE”, cited by the British newspaper “The Guardian”, the girl said that she got in touch with Crumity on the social network Snapchat and that he promised to help her be adopted by a trusted adult. The child said he could get to Pittsburgh by bus and, upon arriving at Crumity’s house, slept in a bed in the basement with the suspect and a third person described as a woman. Crumity also offered the girl cannabis edibles, a term used to describe cannabis-infused food products, and sexually assaulted her repeatedly for about a week.
A 62-year-old man named Ronald Smith was also arrested in Columbus, Georgia, for taking the girl, along with another man, Alvin Hanson, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Georgia, before putting her on a northbound bus. Smith is charged with simple kidnapping and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Meanwhile, Hanson, 64, was arrested in New Orleans for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.