Teenage girl in Amber Alert met alleged abductor on Instagram, then he came to her house
A 15-year-old girl abducted from Harnett County last week made plans on Instagram to meet one of the men now charged with human trafficking, according to search warrants in the case.
An Amber Alert went out on Feb. 26, a day after the girl disappeared from her home in Spring Lake, having told her mother that she needed to go outside to get a water bottle from their car.
Federal, state and local police searched all night before finding the girl safe in Dare County, more than 100 miles from home. Authorities charged a pair of men with multiple felonies, including human trafficking of a child, and accused them of planning to place the girl in “sexual servitude.”
Elihue Mahler, 31, of Virginia Beach and Austyn Lee Cole, 23, of Kitty Hawk are each charged with human trafficking a child victim, kidnapping and two counts of felony conspiracy.
Early in the investigation, law enforcement discovered messages between the girl and an Instagram account with the username “rich_mf_ez,” which belonged to Mahler, according to search warrants.
On the night of Feb. 25, that account messaged the girl with “Yo” and “Where you at.” As the girl responded, “rich_mf_ez” instructed her to delete all the messages before leaving.
“Just walk outside in a few before I pull up,” wrote “rich_mf_ez.
“Down the street?” the girl wrote back.
“Look in like 12 minutes sneak out and start walking down the street,” wrote the alleged abductor.
“I understand, I’m so sorry,” wrote the girl.
“I spent too much time out here as it is,” the alleged abductor wrote back.
Court records showed both remained in the Harnett County jail as of last week. Bail for each stood at $5 million.
During the search, the girl’s mother told investigators her daughter’s phone had parental controls that prevented her from downloading social media apps such as Discord, search warrants said.
But the girl also had an Android tablet without such controls, and it was missing from the scene.
In their application for a search warrant, investigators sought greater access to the “rich_mf_ez” account.
A second Amber Alert was issued last week after a teenage girl was abducted in Siler City. That girl, too, was found safe and her alleged abductors have been charged. Police say there are no indications that the cases are related.
Keeping kids safe
The FBI offers this list of actions parents can take to prevent online abduction:
▪ Keep an ongoing dialogue with children about appropriate online behavior.
▪ Monitor what games, apps and social media children are using.
▪ Stress that pictures and comments posted online do not go away.
▪ Educate children about privacy settings.
▪ Caution against communicating with people unknown in real life, and forbid meetups.
▪ Encourage appropriate screen names and strong passwords.
▪ Instruct them that any kind of online threat is a crime.
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 12:11 PM.