A phone call about a missing teen near Baton Rouge, La., led an investigation involving authorities in three states to the basement of a Pittsburgh home last week, where the 13-year-old runaway was found hidden in a sheet-covered box.

Police on Friday arrested Ki-Shawn Crumity, 26, of the city’s Brighton Heights neighborhood on a dozen criminal charges, including trafficking — which state law defines as a form of sexual or labor servitude — as well as two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and three counts of indecent assault.

Crumity, who police say sexually assaulted the teen every day for a week, is being held without bail at the Allegheny County Jail.

He was arraigned the same day. A judge denied him bail.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who praised agents with the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation for locating the girl, posted to X on Friday that the incident is a cautionary tale.

“She was groomed, exploited and then sexually abused by strangers who found her online,” Murrill wrote. “This is just one example of the dangers of social media and of human trafficking.”

Attorney Michael Machen, who represents Crumity, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The girl continued receiving medical treatment Monday in Pennsylvania, authorities said.

Crumity met the teenager, who authorities have not publicly identified, over the social media app Snapchat, according to a criminal complaint in the case. He told the girl he’d help her get adopted “by a trusted adult,” police said.

Authorities in Louisiana told TribLive a missing persons report was filed about the teen last month in Baker, La., a small town about 11 miles north of Baton Rouge.

Court paperwork didn’t make clear what day the girl left Louisiana. Authorities said the teen took buses from Louisiana to Georgia, then to Washington, D.C, and finally to Pittsburgh, where she arrived around Oct. 23 at Crumity’s Brighton Heights home on Davis Avenue.

The girl was with a woman she met at a Washington, D.C., Greyhound station, the complaint said. At the bus station, the woman asked the teen if she needed help, according to the complaint. The girl said yes and told the woman she was going to Pittsburgh.

The teen called Crumity and told him she was going to “bring a friend,” the complaint said. The three ended up sleeping in the same bed in the basement, according to the police account.

Illicit activity followed, police said. On the teen’s first day in Pennsylvania, Crumity provided her cannabis edibles and alcohol, the complaint said.

Over the week that followed, police said Crumity had unprotected sex with the teen at least once or twice a day. He also forced her to perform a sex act.

Crumity told the teen he knew “he would get in trouble” for housing her, the complaint said. He also knew “she was a runaway,” police said.

Crumity later told police he thought the teen had come to Pittsburgh from Atlanta, the complaint said.

Justin Vellucci | TribLive The house at 1216 Davis Ave. in Pittsburgh’s Brighton Heights neighborhood, where police said they rescued a missing 13-year-old girl from Louisiana who was found inside a box in the basement.  

‘Could I be right?’

On Monday morning, nobody answered the door where police said the girl was held at 1216 Davis Ave., a well-maintained, two-story house whose front porch featured an ornately framed welcome mat and whose steps were guarded by two pitbull-like statues.

One neighbor told a TribLive reporter he never saw a teenage girl at or outside the residence, but the family living there “seemed like nice people.” Most neighbors, as well as a group of men working in a nearby barber shop, declined comment.

Crumity’s name was not listed in Allegheny County property records for the home. TribLive could not reach the property owners Monday.

“I wouldn’t have expected anything like that,” said one neighbor, who declined to give his name.

Staca Shehan, a vice president with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said that’s often how these events unfold.

“People will always say, ‘Oh, that can never happen in my neighborhood,’ or ‘Oh, that can never happen to that family,’ ” Shehan told TribLive. “What we say is: ‘Don’t think about all the reasons you could be wrong.’ Think about, ‘Could I be right?’ ”

Shehan would not comment on the specifics of the Crumity case. But she said it appeared to be “a fairly typical example” of nonfamilial trafficking, where a child is moved across state lines or jurisdictions by somebody who is not related to them by blood.

More than nine out of every 10 children trafficked in the U.S. is female, Shehan said.

“Not all missing children are child sex trafficking victims and not all child sex trafficking victims are missing children — but there’s definitely an overlap,” Shehan said.

“Traffickers and buyers are targeting kids who lack a strong support network,” she added. “These kids who don’t feel they’re loved or feel they don’t belong, they become vulnerable.”

The Alexandria, Va.-based center received 29,568 reports of missing children last year alone, according to its website. More than 27,000 of those cases were resolved.

Finally feeling safe

Details in court papers about the rescue operation were sparse, but there was collaboration among multiple law enforcement agencies, according to the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office.

Police in Baker worked with Murrill, the Louisiana attorney general, and Louisiana State Police to trace the girl’s steps, Chris Masters, a supervisory special agent with the attorney general’s office, told TribLive. Authorities in Georgia also were involved.

Forensic examiners pored over data in Louisiana from the teen’s cellphone, Masters said. They also combed through her social media activity.

Authorities then brought in the U.S. Marshals and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force, Masters said.

It was not clear Monday exactly how law enforcement traced the girl to Pittsburgh’s North Side.

Within days, a Pittsburgh police SWAT team and fugitive apprehension unit entered Crumity’s home in Brighton Heights.

“Essentially, that’s what they do — they find people,” Masters told TribLive.

Masters said teens being lured out of state after meeting someone on social media is not uncommon.

“These children, they believe the person on the other end wants to be their boyfriend,” he said.

Neither the FBI nor U.S. Marshals Service returned phone calls or emails Monday seeking comment. A Pittsburgh police spokeswoman declined comment.

Authorities said the teenage victim was receiving physical and mental-health services at an area hospital.

Police said the teen felt relieved once authorities took her to a local hospital.

“The juvenile victim stated that (being in the hospital) is the safest she had ever felt,” police said in the criminal complaint.

To report missing children or suspected child trafficking, visit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at cybertipline.org or call 1-800-THE-LOST.

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