KARINA ELIZABETH GARCIA - 11 yo - Washington/Prince George's County DC

WASHINGTON - Maryland Police have issued an Amber Alert for 11-year-old Karina Elizabeth Garcia from Prince George's County.
Garcia is described as Hispanic, 4 feet, 10 inches tall, 110 pounds with black hair.
She was last seen wearing a red shirt with yellow stars and blue jeans.
She is believed to have been abducted by Elmer Velaya, a Latino man who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and 175 pounds.
Police believe he is driving an orange tractor with a flatbed trailer carrying a Virginia registration.
The license number was not made available.

An 11-year-old Prince George's County girl was found safe late Saturday
in Tennessee, shortly after authorities issued an Amber Alert reporting
that they suspected she had been abducted, officials said.

County police said late Saturday that a man was being questioned in Jackson Tenn., in connection with the incident.

-- A Texas truck driver has been arrested and charged with abducting an
11-year-old Maryland girl and driving her to Tennessee, officials said.
Elmer Joaquin Zelaya, 41, was stopped and arrested by a Tennessee
Highway Patrol officer about 10 p.m. Saturday after Maryland
authorities issued an Amber alert earlier that day.
Zelaya was an acquaintance of the girl's family, authorities said,
and neighbors often saw his tractor-trailer parked at the family home.
Relatives reported Karina Manzano-Garcia missing from her Seat
Pleasant, Md., home about 2:30 p.m., Saturday and authorities began
radio and television broadcasts with descriptions of the girl and the
truck. Zelaya was thought to be driving, the Post reported.
The highway patrolman spotted the truck in Tennessee's Madison
County and took Zelaya into custody, a spokesman for the Tennessee
Department of Safety said.
Police would not say how or why Zelaya allegedly drove off with Karina,
who was returned to her home Sunday, the Post said.
"It's bad, man. We know the kids," neighbor Larry Summers, 50, said.
"When something like that goes on, that kind of bothers the whole
neighborhood."

The FBI says a 41-year-old man accused of abducting an 11-year-old
girl from Prince George's County had sex with her three times in his
truck, and discussed marrying her in El Salvador before he was stopped
and arrested in Tennessee.
Elmer Zelaya has been charged with transporting a minor across state
lines with the intent to have sex. Charging documents filed in
Maryland's federal court by the FBI say Zelaya had been calling the
girl regularly for more than a year before the abduction. Zelaya, who's
related to the victim by marriage, stayed with the family twice a
month.
Around 2 a.m. on Feb. 13, the girl met Zelaya outside her house,
jumped into his car and drove to Arlington to pick up his truck,
charging documents said. On the way, authorities say, Zelaya bought two
boxes of condoms and a coffee.
About 12 hours later, the girl's parents called the police and
reported her missing. Zelaya called her parents 30 minutes later. He
told her father he was in love with his 11-year-old daughter,
authorities said.

Zelaya told the girl to pretend he was her father if they were
stopped and questioned, according to charging documents. And that's
exactly what she told a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper when they were
stopped a little after 10 p.m. on Feb. 13. But while on the scene, the
trooper received the girl's picture from an Amber Alert. Zelaya was
arrested and the girl was taken to Jackson Madison County General
Hospital.

She told child welfare workers that Zelaya had sex with her times in
his truck, the FBI said. She also told authorities that as they drove,
the two talked about "what they wanted to do when they grew up and
about how they loved each other,"charging documents said. They
would get married when they got to El Salvador. Zelaya explained to the
girl "what he wanted in a wife -- specifically that she needed to pay
attention to him even if she had children to take care of."
Authorities say when they searched the truck they found two empty condom boxes.

Zelaya's authorization to work in the United States expires on March
19 and he had already told his boss he planned to quit his job,
documents said.

A federal grand jury has indicted Elmer Zelaya-Robles, age 41,
of Grand Prairie, Texas, who worked for a Maryland trucking company and
at times resided with a relative in Virginia, on charges of
transporting an 11-year-old girl from Maryland to engage in sex.
The indictment was announced by United
States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein, Special
Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation; and Chief Roberto L. Hylton of the Prince George’s County
Police Department.
“Nationwide law enforcement coordination,
modern technology, and a shared commitment to pursue criminals who prey
on children contributed to the quick arrest of Mr. Zelaya and the
recovery of the child,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Local,
state, and federal law enforcement quickly coordinated their efforts and
within hours after issuing an AMBER alert, the missing girl was found
in Tennessee. This case demonstrates both the terrible danger that
sexual predators pose to children and the heroic ability of law
enforcement to make a difference.”
According to the indictment and affidavit in
support of an arrest warrant, the parents of an 11-year-old girl living
in Prince George’s County, Maryland reported their daughter missing at
2:30 p.m. on February 13, 2010. An AMBER alert was issued for an orange
tractor-trailer in which the child was thought to be traveling.
Around 10:00 p.m. that same day, a Tennessee
highway trooper spotted the tractor trailer. The trooper stopped the
vehicle after it turned into the Love’s Truck Stop in Jackson, Tennessee
and identified the driver as Zelaya. Zelaya was handcuffed and the
missing girl was found in the sleeper area of the truck. The indictment
alleges that Zelaya was transporting the girl with the intent to rape
her, in violation of Maryland law.
Zelaya faces a mandatory minimum sentence of
10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison. Zelaya is
detained pending trial.
An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An
individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until
proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.
This case was brought as part of Project
Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic
of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the
Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the
Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS),
Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to
better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children
via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more
information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit
www.projectsafechildhood.gov. Details about Maryland’s program are
available at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/md/Safe-Childhood/index.html.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein
thanked the Tennessee Highway Patrol for their assistance in the
investigation and commended Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacy Dawson Belf,
who is prosecuting the case.