Hall County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) personnel reunited a North Carolina girl with family and
arrested a Louisiana man Wednesday following a routine traffic stop on I-985.
HCSO NEWS RELEASE:
“Uniform Patrol Division deputies stopped the driver of a 1997 BMW 528 on the southbound side of
the interstate approximately a mile south of Spout Springs Road at roughly 3 p.m. Deputies cited
Kenton Jesus Enamorado Ventura, 18, of West Monroe, La., for (using) wireless communication
while driving and driving while unlicensed.
During the stop, deputies spoke with both Ventura, and his passenger, a 12-year-old Leicester
Township, N.C., girl. Deputies notified investigators when accounts the occupants of the car
provided about their relationship were inconsistent with one another. HCSO investigators then
worked into the overnight hours on the case with the Buncombe County (North Carolina) Sheriff’s
Office, Buncombe County District Attorney’s Office and the Ouachita Parish (Louisiana) Sheriff’s
Office.
According to the preliminary investigation, Ventura met the girl online, and the two used WhatsApp
to communicate for roughly a year. Investigators believe Ventura drove from Louisiana to North
Carolina and picked the victim up from her home at approximately noon on Wednesday. The two
were believed to be heading to Ventura’s home in West Monroe, according to initial details. The
girl’s father was unaware she had left.
HCSO released the victim to her father and arrested Ventura on the traffic charges. Deputies booked
him into the Hall County Jail where he remained held on Friday afternoon, July 12.
Buncombe County North Carolina authorities are handling the abduction investigation and any
subsequent charges.”
Sheriff’s office spokesman Derreck Booth added the girl is not Maria Gomez-Perez, the 12-year-old from Gainesville who has been missing since May 29, and “this case is in no way related to that one.”