A Kentucky man is facing charges rape and several other serious offenses after a missing North Carolina 16-year-old was found inside a trap door hidden underneath the rug at his house.
Zackary Jones, 34, was arrested after Lincoln County deputies responded to a report of domestic violence at his home on Christmas Day.
Jones answered the door of his home on Robertstown Road in Kings Mountain and told authorities the victim was not there.
Deputies were soon after taken through the home by Jones, according to a police citation.
The officers noticed drugs in plain view, which Jones then tried to get rid of in a wood stove in his bedroom.
Authorities then took Jones into custody, leaving him in the backseat of a police vehicle. They then returned to try and find the missing girl when they noticed a trap door hidden underneath a bedroom rug.
The girl, a missing 16-year-old from Fayetteville, North Carolina who has yet to be identified, was found.
Officers said that the victim was ‘very high’ when Jones was arrested.
The 34-year-old man admitted to doing drugs and ‘engaging in sexual activity’ with the girl. The age of consent is 16 in Kentucky.
However, the girl then stated Jones had taken her from North Carolina and brought him back to his home.
She told police that he had contacted her about two to three weeks earlier and claimed he was 19.
When he arrived at her home, she said he looked older and he admitted he lied. However, he then lied again, saying he was 25.
The victim only found out Jones’ actual age when she got to his home and met his family.
She told deputies that after she found this out, he threatened her and made her promise to tell anyone who asked that she was 18.
The teen then alleged that Jones was armed with a gun and had, on multiple occasions, threatened to kill her.
She also said that they were stopped by a deputy in Lincoln County the night he trafficked her and said he would shoot the officer if he tried to take one of them from the vehicle.
Jones faces about a dozen charges, including rape, sodomy, strangulation, terroristic threatening, and resisting arrest.
He could also potentially face charges back in North Carolina, according to WKYT.
Jones is currently being held in a county jail.
