Sexual assault charges have been leveled against the New Jersey man accused of repeatedly raping a missing Massachusetts girl who was found at his home in November.
Jorge Luis Garzon, 45, of Jersey City was charged with aggravated sexual assault, child endangerment and child abuse according to Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio, as quoted by NJ.com.
Garzon, a divorced father of two, was arrested after Jersey City police and the New York City Police Department’s Missing Persons Squad arrived at parent’s his Winfield Avenue home to look for the missing 13-year-old girl, according to The Jersey Journal.
The girl had been missing from Wayland, Mass. since Nov. 4, when she apparently boarded a Peter Pan bus in Boston. She was last seen on New York Port Authority security tape getting off the bus in New York City around 11 p.m. that night.
Her family said they believed she ran away due to boredom with life in the small town of just over 12,000 residents about 20 miles west of Boston.
The missing girl met Garzon over the Internet, according to a NJ.com source close to the investigation who was not authorized to discuss the case.
The investigation, headed by Sgt. Jamie Berger and Det. Ruth Backman of the Wayland Police Department, led the duo to travel to New York City after receiving a tip that the girl may have ran away to Brooklyn since her father once lived there.
According to published reports, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office has not provided any details about how long the girl was in New Jersey or what led police to Garzon’s home.
