BERRIEN SPRINGS, Mich. — An Illinois man has admitted to traveling to Berrien Springs to sexually assault a 12-year-old girl. The man is Eduardo G. Torres from Waukegan.
According to a police document, a woman reported that her 12-year-old daughter was missing to the Berrien Springs Oronoko Township Police Department on April 14 at around 11:30 a.m.
The 12-year-old girl left her house after her mother went to work at 5 a.m. When she left, the 12-year-old was wearing a purple hoodie with neon-colored graphics of a skeleton hand holding a rose. She was also wearing grey shorts.
The 12-year-old girl went to meet a male in his 20s, known as “Jessy,” to have sex in the woods for drugs.
Later, her sister found a video of the encounter on the 12-year-old’s Snapchat account, which was sent by the Illinois man. The video showed her having sex with the male in the woods, and was shot from the perspective of the male. In the video, the man’s face could be seen clearly.
The 12-year-old’s sister identified the girl in the video based on her physical appearance and the shirt that she was wearing.
At 4 p.m. on the same day, the FBI was notified that the girl was missing, and initiated a number of emergency disclosure requests to track her location and identify the suspect. An emergency disclosure request was sent to Snapchat for the 12-year-old girl’s account and the account that sent the video. Snapchat returned a Google account email address and IP logs returning to Verizon Wireless.
A search in a public record database identified Torres as the Google account email address user. An emergency disclosure request was then submitted to Google LLC for the email address, requesting all account information, including subscriber and location information.
The information showed that the account had traveled from Chicago, Illinois to Berrien Springs, Michigan from 1 a.m.-4 a.m. The account also spent time in the vicinity of the 12-year-old’s address, and then traveled towards Benton Harbor, Michigan. The account left at about 4 p.m. to return to Chicago. The user was in the vicinity of either Berrien Springs or Eau Claire when the video of the encounter was sent to the 12-year-old’s Snapchat account.
Google also provided subscriber information for the email account, including the user’s cell phone number and address.
From the late hours of April 14 to the early morning hours of April 15, the cell phone number continued to ping within the vicinity of the known address for Torres. In the early morning hours of April 15, agents approached the residence and found Torres and the 12-year-old seated in a vehicle in a driveway.
Torres then admitted to communicating with the girl on Snapchat with the goal of driving to Michigan to have sex with her. He said that he had not met her prior to their encounter on April 14. He also said that he waited until her mother left for work to pick her up, and had sex with the girl twice.
Torres also admitted to talking to others who he believed were minors on Snapchat, and said that the 12-year-old girl was the first that he met in person.
Torres was then arrested. He has been charged with possession of child pornography, transportation of a minor, and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual activity.
