Colorado mom: Son's online game leads to missing Utah teen

SALT LAKE CITY — A chat between strangers that began in the middle of an online game proved to be the pivotal turn in the case of a Utah teen who had been missing for nearly a year and a half.

Colorado mom Khristina Tresp said her teenage son was playing a session of "Among Us" in the days before Halloween when he struck up a conversation with a girl.

According to Tresp, the conversation turned concerning when it eventually moved to Discord.

"She shared with him that she was a runaway and being held against her will by a man that was older than her and was hurting her," Tresp said during an interview with KSL.

Tresp said Thursday that her son told her what the girl had disclosed to him, and she began her own conversation Halloween afternoon with the 17-year-old from Garden City.

"She only knew the county she was in and the city she was in," Tresp explained.

The mom then asked the teen to come up with the name of someone who was living in the house where she was being kept, which she did.

Tresp said she cross-checked that against online county property records, which gave her some possible results.

She then turned to Zillow.

"I started sending her photos of the pictures of the homes off of Zillow so that I could be sure that she knew where she was at for sure," she explained. "Once she saw the second house that I sent her, she said, 'Yes, that's it, that's where I'm at.'"

Tresp said she contacted the FBI.

Adam Hunter Harmel was subsequently charged federally by a grand jury with transportation with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

According to court documents, Harmel had met the teen online, picked her up in Utah and drove her to Oregon, and then would not let her leave.

The documents stated that Harmel continued to sexually assault the girl over the next 17 months and would corner her at night to prevent her from escaping.

Investigators wrote that when they executed a search warrant on the home, they recovered knives, a machete and evidence of a sexual assault.

"Though the investigation is pending, there is reason to believe that Defendant has been involved in the production and distribution of child pornography as well as enticement or coercion of other minor victims," court documents stated. "Defendant expressed a desire to abduct minors, bind the victims in a tub, have sex with them, keep them in empty drawers located in the basement of the house, and to injure or kill them thereafter. There is evidence that Defendant attempted to abduct at least one other minor. This evidence has led law enforcement to request information from victims nationwide."

Tresp said she was simply grateful to be able to intervene.

"It was just one of those moments where it takes your breath away, you know, to know that you've actually found someone that is in desperate need of help," Tresp said. "It's just a miracle the way everything happened and the way it fell into my lap (that) I was able to help her."

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