(August 26, 2008)—The parents of a 13-year-old Marlin girl who was reported missing on Monday were headed to Arkansas Tuesday to pick up their daughter while an adult neighbor remained in custody there, charged with aggravated assault of a child.

A dozen police officers and sheriff’s deputies found the teenager and the man Monday night at a motel in Berryville, Ark.

They arrested the man who was identified in a published report as Jesus Diaz Lopez, 24.

The search for the girl started around 7:30 a.m. Monday after the teenager’s parents called police to report that she was missing.

Hamilton said the investigation quickly focused on Lopez.

He said it’s possible the girl had developed some form of relationship with him, but he would not provide details.

Investigators learned that the two were possibly headed to Missouri and additional leads narrowed the focus of the search to the Sunrise Motel in Arkansas where a dozen Berryville police officers and deputies from the Carroll County, Ark. Sheriff’s Office found the pair around 9 p.m. Monday.

Hamilton said the two were packed up and appeared to be ready to hit the road when the officers arrived Monday night.

The Carroll County, Ark. News reported that Lopez was taken into custody without incident and that the girl was placed in juvenile custody.

It quoted Detective Robert Bartos as saying Lopez was part of a Texas-based construction crew that was staying at the motel.

Bartos told the paper the teenager accompanied Lopez willingly because she said she was “in love with him.”

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