Emiliee Solomon and Aysha Cross: Missing 14-year-old girls rescued from Georgetown man who was arrested
GEORGETOWN, TEXAS: Two teens have been found thanks to three deputies with the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office in Georgetown after an Amber Alert was issued over their disappearance. Emiliee Solomon, 14, and Aysha Cross, 14, had gone missing since June 28.
A Georgetown man, James Robert Vanhouten, 30, has been arrested for harboring them, Sheriff Parnell McNamara told KWTX. While police initially said the situation did not meet Texas Department of Public Safety criteria for Amber Alerts, it was untimately issued on Monday, July 4, after authorities received a screenshot from Cross’ Snapchat story with the message “help".
TOP STORIES
This idyllic island is ground zero for the world's MOST SAVAGE shark attacks
Aiden McCarthy: Over $1M raised via GoFundMe for boy, 2, orphaned in Highland Park shooting
Vanhouten will be charged with harboring a minor. The sheriff said that more arrests are likely to be made. “The (deputies) did an unbelievable amount of work on it. That’s really good work on their part,” McNamara said. Leads given to the sheriff said deputies took them to Temple and back to Bellmead and Moody in McLennan County. They were eventually led to Vanhouten in Georgetown. McNamara confirmed that Solomon and Cross were reportedly staying with different people. They were reunited with their families on Tuesday morning, July 5.
Who are Emiliee Solomon and Aysha Cross?
After the girls went missing, Emilee Solomon was described as a white girl with brown eyes and brown hair. She has a height of 5 feet, 1 inch, and a body weight of approximately 175 pounds. Aysha Lynn Cross, on the other hand, was described as a white girl with hazel-colored eyes and black hair. She has a height of 5 feet and 2 inches, and her body weight is 105 pounds.
At the time of their disappearance, Solomon’s stepmother Sara Dunn said the girls were best friends. Solomon had gone to stay the night at Cross' home, and was later supposed to be picked up by an uncle. However, Dunn said Solomon was dropped off at Bewley Park in McGregor at around midnight last week, and may have been picked up by someone else. Dunn and Cross’ mother, Shannon Valles, were working together to find the girls at the time. “I want her to know that everything is OK,” Dunn had said. It doesn’t matter what she has done. I want to tell her to just come home. We love you no matter what. Our door is open. Come home.”
ALSO READ
An Amber Alert is issued when child abduction meets the specific Amber Alert criteria. According to Amber Alert's website, "The AMBER Alert System began in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed with local police to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children. AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response and was created as a legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, TX, and then brutally murdered. Other states and communities soon set up their own AMBER plans as the idea was adopted across the nation."