CHIPPEWA COUNTY, Mich. — A 13-year-old boy from Kincheloe, Mich. reported missing on Thursday was found in Tennessee Saturday with suspects previously investigated for sex crimes, police say.
An alert was originally distributed Thursday afternoon, and police say they believed the incident to involve suspects from out of the state.
With the help of several law enforcement agencies including investigators from Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI, the boy was located in Athens, Tenn. He is now safe and in protective custody, police say.
Police say social media played a role in the kidnapping, and urged parents to discuss the dangers of communicating with strangers on social media.
"Many dangerous individuals including (but not limited to) sex traffickers utilize social media apps to seek out their young victims," Kinross District Police said in a press release on Facebook. "The suspects that the child was located with had previously been investigated and were on the FBI data base for being involved in sex crimes in the past."
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