The Brief A 24-year-old Georgia man is charged after allegedly traveling to Lake County to meet a girl younger than 14. Detectives found the child and the suspect about 12 hours after she was reported missing. Lake County Chief of Law Enforcement Chris Covelli said parents should closely monitor their children's online activity.



A Georgia man is facing charges after authorities said he drove to Illinois to meet a young girl who he'd been talking to online.

What we know:

Deputies with the Lake County Sheriff's Office were called to a home around 4:40 a.m. after a girl younger than 14 was reported missing.

Sheriff's police said the girl's cellphone was not working, leaving detectives with few clues at the start of the case.

Lake County Chief of Law Enforcement Chris Covelli said investigators were able to trace communications from a phone the girl had previously used and discovered she had been talking with someone connected to a Georgia phone number.

 So I can't get into the specific platform [that the girl and the suspect were allegedly talking on] right now, but what I can say is that our detectives did an incredible job. Very little leads to go off of when this originated and they got involved in the case,  Covelli said.  And what they did is they backtracked a cell phone that this teen did have at one time. And they were able to find that she was communicating with a telephone number that originated in Georgia. 

Covelli said detectives quickly identified a possible suspect, later identified as 24-year-old Jordy Alexis Fuerte Perez of Norcross, Georgia.

 They did some research very quickly, developed a possible person that she was communicating with from this other phone number in Georgia and were able to link the connections just like that,  he said.

Jordy Alexis Fuerte Perez (Lake County Sheriff's Office)

Detectives learned that Fuerte Perez had made plans to drive from Georgia to Lake County to pick up the girl. It appeared he told the girl he wanted to have a  romantic relationship  with her, police said.

Detectives then learned what car Fuerte Perez may have been drivi

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