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Florida girls kidnapped by man they met on Roblox: MCSO

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Florida girls kidnapped by man they met on Roblox: MCSO


Courtesy: Martin County Sheriff’s Office

Two missing Florida girls are back home and a 19-year-old man from Nebraska is behind bars after deputies say he kidnapped them after they met on the gaming app Roblox.

What we know:

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According to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a service call around 8 p.m. regarding a pair of missing sisters who were 12 and 15 years old.

Family members told deputies that the girls went to a park in Indiantown around 9 a.m. that morning. They were brought back home and their cell phones were taken away as punishment.

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The sisters’ family told deputies that the girls may be with someone they had been communicating with on Snapchat.

READ: Nancy Guthrie: Ransom note claim prompts sheriff to release a statement

The deputies saw that the SnapChat app was deleted from the girls’ phone so they reloaded the app on the phone and saw conversations between the girls and the suspect.

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Those conversations revealed that the suspect, later identified as 19-year-old Hser Mu Lah Say, was on his way to Indiantown to pick up the girls and leave.

“We were dealing with a type of abduction,” Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek stated. “We know these girls went willingly, but their age suggested that they had been taken and were probably being removed from our area. That didn’t stop us, however, from searching local motels, local areas, local parks trying to find these young girls. It was literally freezing in Indiantown that night. We were in full crisis mode.”

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Dig deeper:

Budensiek said the communication between the girls and the man began in the summer of 2025 on the gaming app Roblox and then eventually moved to Snapchat.

Family said they noticed strange things like gifts, specifically food, showing up to the house.

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READ: Lyft driver accused of choking and threatening to kill passenger

Detectives pieced together a timeline and said the suspect left Omaha, Nebraska on Friday morning and drove straight through to Indiantown, arriving on Saturday around 10 a.m.

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Courtesy: Martin County Sheriff’s Office

Initially, investigators said the girls planned to meet him at the park, but they were taken back home, and their phones were taken away.

They learned that the suspect was taking I-75 to head back to Nebraska, so the detectives contacted the Florida Highway Patrol and the Georgia State Police.

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“There’s nothing good with a grown man coming into the state of Florida, removing two teenage girls, troubled teenage girls, taking them to Omaha, Nebraska,” Budensiek stated.

Courtesy: Martin County Sheriff’s Office

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The Georgia State Police pulled the vehicle over and took Lah Say into custody and rescued the girls.

The sheriff noted that the girls were found about five minutes before an Amber Alert was issued for them. He said if it was sent out earlier, the suspect would know the information law enforcement had on him, including details about his car and where they believed he was headed with the girls.

READ: Body found inside truck submerged in Plant City pond during search for missing man: HCSO

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What they’re saying:

“In this case, I think we prevented something disastrous,” Budensiek said. “Do we know what would have happened? No, none of us do, but we went through the devices we had available to us at the time. We’ve not seen anything explicit, necessarily, but the suspect was repeatedly warning these young girls that he could get into a lot of trouble for what he was about to do. He knew he was violating the law. We knew that if we didn’t find those girls in a timely manner and everyone did not do what they did to find these girls, they would be in Omaha, Nebraska, missing.”

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Lah Say has been charged with two counts of kidnapping and two counts of interference with child custody.

Courtesy: Martin County Sheriff’s Office

What’s next:

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Lah Say is awaiting extradition back to Martin County.

The Source: This article was written with information posted online by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office and presented during a press conference.

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Area to watch for tropical development in Gulf to bring downpours to drought-stricken Florida | Latest Weather Clips | FOX Weather

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Area to watch for tropical development in Gulf to bring downpours to drought-stricken Florida | Latest Weather Clips | FOX Weather


Area to watch for tropical development in Gulf to bring downpours to drought-stricken Florida

While this area to watch for tropical development may not actually become tropical, it will definitely bring rain to Florida, which desperately needs it. The system is likely to bring the most significant rain to the Florida panhandle down south to Tampa, but the entire state can expect some moisture through midweek next week. 



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Will Florida see its next named storm this weekend?

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Will Florida see its next named storm this weekend?


Forecasters are tracking a broad disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast that could bring much-needed rain to parched communities this weekend.

Gulf tropical development potential

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What we know:

Models continue to indicate there is a potential for an area of low pressure to form over the northeast Gulf off the west coast of Florida over the weekend.

The National Hurricane Center says an area in the Gulf has a 30% chance of tropical development over the next seven days.

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Models a shifting away from the forecast of the system moving over the state and off the coast of the Carolinas.  Models are now indicating a more likely scenario that it lingers in the Gulf over the weekend and may drift more to the northwest near the Florida Panhandle or Louisiana coast. Early next week conditions look like they will become less conducive and may prohibit much development. Regardless of whether it organizes, the system will bring tropical downpours and increased moisture across Florida and parts of the Southeast. 

FOX 13 Meteorologist Jim Weber states we are close to 7.50″ below average on our rainfall in Tampa for the year. A weak area of low pressure or tropical system can be beneficial in helping to make up for the rainfall deficit we have been experiencing.  Drought conditions continue over much of the state of Florida. If this system ends up drifting more westward, it would limit the total amount of rainfall and the highest totals would be along the immediate west coast.

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Atlantic tropical development potential

A tropical wave southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands remains disorganized.

It is moving west-northwest and, according to the NHC, there is a chance for slow development over the next day or two.  By the weekend it is expected to move into less conducive conditions and Saharan dust will begin to affect this wave, limiting its moisture. The time for this system to develop is very limited and will not develop after the weekend.

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The NHC is giving it a 10% chance of developing. 

Weather factors and storm names

What we don’t know:

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Officials cannot yet confirm if the disturbance will overcome environmental hurdles like land interaction, wind shear and dry air. Computer models remain uncertain on how much this system will develop over the waters of the Gulf.  If it stays over the warm waters of the Gulf longer, it may give it additional time to organize. Interactions with land and wind shear will likely pose obstacles in further development.

To become a tropical system, it must develop a defined circulation with organized thunderstorms. If it reaches maximum sustained winds of 39 mph, it will become a tropical storm and be named Bertha. 

The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13Meteorologist Jim Weber, the National Hurricane Center tropical weather outlooks, as well as forecast computer models.

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Florida TODAY: Homes get expensive, license to blush, fuzzy invader

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Florida TODAY: Homes get expensive, license to blush, fuzzy invader



Sign up to get the Florida TODAY statewide newsletter in your inbox weekdays. It’s free.

Here’s a quick glimpse of Florida TODAY, our statewide newsletter:

How long does it take to save for a first home, Florida?

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In Jacksonville, the answer could be less than a year.

In Miami, it could be more than 40.

A new report suggests homeownership is slipping further out of reach for many Florida workers — especially those in retail and restaurant jobs.

There’s a lot more going on across the Sunshine State:

License to blush: A South Florida retiree was taken aback by her new license plate. Her family thinks she should keep it. Would you?

Tiny terror: Florida is racing to stop a fuzzy new invasive pest that can wipe out a field in weeks. It has a taste for everything from grass to corn to sugarcane.

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Small miracle: Black skimmer chicks are back on the Sanibel Causeway for the first time in 30 years. Photojournalist Andrew West got a close look at the comeback.

That’s not all. Want the full statewide newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to Florida TODAY

NOTE: If you are a digital or print subscriber to a USA TODAY Network-Florida site, follow this link to subscribe via your local site.



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