A Florida man was arrested after sexually explicit videos of a teenage girl reported missing almost a year ago were discovered online, police said.
Christopher Johnson, 30, was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with lewd and lascivious battery of a child younger than 16. The girl, who was 15 years old at the time she went missing in December 2018, was in the car at the time Johnson was arrested.
The victim left her home in Sunrise, about 10 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale, at around 3 a.m. last December, according to a Davie Police Department arrest affidavit.
Police said the girl was seen two months later at a convenience store in Davie with two men, one of whom was recently identified as Johnson. When authorities initially received the tip in February about the missing girl, she was seen on store surveillance video covering her face and immediately leaving after the clerk recognized her, police said.
The clerk told police that the girl and the two men left in a black Dodge Challenger, but the clerk was not able to get the license plate. A search for the vehicle at the time was not successful, Davie police said.
It wasn't until seven months later that detectives received another tip on the case. The affidavit states that on Sept. 3, the victim's mother contacted authorities and said she had received information that "sexually explicit images" of her daughter had been posted on several websites, including Pornhub and Snapchat.
The images came from videos allegedly showing the victim performing sexual acts on two adult males, according to the affidavit. Approximately 58 videos of the teenager had been shared online, police said.
During the investigation, police determined that one of the males in the videos was Johnson.
Earlier this month, Davie police received a report that the black Dodge Challenger was spotted at a store in the area. Authorities say they were able to obtain a license plate number and traced it back to an address belonging to Johnson.
"Surveillance was conducted on this address by several detectives," the police department said. Days later, on Oct. 22, Johnson was pulled over and arrested during a traffic stop after leaving his apartment with the victim.
During a search of Johnson's apartment, detectives found paperwork from an abortion clinic. The girl told police that the videos were filmed on her cellphone inside Johnson's apartment. She also told police that after she got pregnant, he took her to a clinic to terminate the pregnancy.
Johnson denied having sexual intercourse with the teen, police said. It's not clear if he has an attorney. Davie police did not immediately return a request for comment about the second man.