19-year-old drove for 22 hours straight to kidnap 2 underage girls he met on Roblox game, police say

Florida police said they worked quickly to identify a 19-year-old man who allegedly drove 1,500 miles to kidnap two sisters he met on Roblox and spoke with on Snapchat.

The sisters, 12 and 14 years old, were reported missing from their home in Indiantown on Saturday, which led to a multi-state search by local and federal law enforcement authorities.

'There is no application online that is safe. If you can communicate with someone away from your house in the quiet of your own room, it can be a problem. So parents have to be vigilant.'

They were found by the Georgia Highway Patrol the next day when they pulled over a vehicle they believed the sisters were in.

Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said the man was identified as Hser Mu Lah Say, who had driven 22 straight hours from Nebraska down to Florida on Friday.

"We're dealing with a grown man that drove all the way from another state, an individual they had never met in person, picked them up, and we really don't know what he was gonna do," Budensiek said.

Surveillance video helped police identify the car Say was driving. They provided images of the man in what appeared to be a convenience store.

Say was charged with two counts of kidnapping and three counts of interference of child custody. Budensiek said the man may face additional charges.

The sheriff made it a point to say the girls were "rescued" from the "scenario that they had placed themselves in."

The Roblox game is widely popular among children but has been criticized for not doing enough to keep predators away from underage users. The company released a statement about the latest incident.

"We are investigating this deeply troubling incident and will fully support law enforcement," the company statement reads.

"Roblox has robust safety policies to protect users that go beyond many other platforms, and advanced safeguards that monitor for harmful content and communications," it added. "We have filters designed to block the sharing of personal information, don't allow user-to-user image or video sharing, and recently rolled out age checks globally to limit kids and teens to chatting with others their age by default. While no system is perfect, our commitment to safety never ends, and we continue to strengthen protections to keep users safe."

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Budensiek warned parents to monitor their children's use of online apps.

"There is no application online that's safe. If you can communicate with someone away from your house in the quiet of your own room, it can be a problem. So parents have to be vigilant," he said.

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