Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.
A teenager held captive for 521 days after disappearing from her home in Utah finally managed to escape using the online video game Among Us, according to reports.
The girl was 15 when she went missing in Garden City on May 29, 2025, sparking a nationwide, multi-agency manhunt. The search came to an end nearly 18 months later on November 1 this year, when the teen was finally rescued from a house in Huntington, Oregon.
Adam Hunter Harmel, 39, has since been arrested and charged with transporting a minor to another state to engage in criminal sexual activity, an offense that carries a mandatory minimum 10-year prison sentence on conviction.
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Utah said in a statement Harmel initially met the girl on social media last year before driving across state lines to take her to his home, where he allegedly held her captive.
Prosecutors say the victim was forced to sleep in Harmel’s bed beside a wall and that he sexually assaulted her, according to a federal criminal complaint filed cited by Fox13 Salt Lake City .
Harmel forced the teen to tear out the braces from her teeth with pliers to make herself more difficult to identify…
