A 15-year-old girl who had been missing for days in Arizona was found by the FBI last summer thanks to information found on her Nintendo Switch console.
The teenager was reported missing on August 3, 2022 in the state of Virginia in the United States. The next day, her family and neighbors searched for her, ABC reported last Wednesday.
Little did they know that the girl had already traveled 3200 km from her home by bus.
According to court documents, a 28-year-old man named Ethan Roberts “friended” her online. He allegedly kidnapped him and then forced him to produce child pornography.
But according to a United States federal court, Roberts allowed the teenager to bring her Nintendo Switch console, which would allow her to leave digital traces of her whereabouts when she connected to the apartment’s Internet network to download a game.
In fact, the console has the function of notifying friends’ consoles when they appear online, to encourage group play.
In this case, when a friend of the young woman saw her name in a list of people on the Internet, the feature would have saved the young woman’s town. He reportedly contacted authorities immediately. With Nintendo’s help, the FBI obtained the Switch console’s IP address.
As a result, 11 days after his disappearance, the FBI went to the man’s home to handcuff him, US media reported.
Roberts was sentenced to 30 years in prison last April after being charged with child pornography and kidnapping a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
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