GREEN OAKS, IL — A 43-year-old man is in custody in connection with allegations he encouraged a teenager he met online to take a bus from her home in North Carolina to Chicago before bringing her to his home and sexually abusing her, authorities said.
Andrew W. Szech, 43, was taken into custody on Wednesday after local detectives joined an effort to help find the 15-year-old girl, who was reported missing from Kannapolis, North Carolina.
Police say they obtained a warrant to search the house in the 31000 block of Prairie Ridge Road in Green Oaks on Wednesday and set up surveillance at the residence. They took Szech into custody after he was spotted leaving the home with the girl, according to a news release from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
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Local authorities also rescued the girl, police said.
Szech began communicating with the girl online in June, authorities said. He “encouraged” her to take a bus from her home to Chicago in early July, and he picked her up from a Chicago bus station and brought her to his home in Green Oaks.
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There, police said, he sexually abused her. Police said the girl has been “placed in care” and is “safely away from her abuser.”
Following a search of the home, authorities found a firearm, more than 2,700 grams of marijuana, nearly 30 grams of psilocybin-laced candy, more than 55 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, 27 cannabis plants and more than 55 Adderall pills.
Szech has been charged with three counts of criminal sexual abuse, unlawful possession of psilocybin mushrooms with intent to deliver, unlawful possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, unlawful possession of cannabis, unlawful possession of Adderall with intent to deliver, aggravated battery, unlawful possession of cannabis plants, two counts of aggravated unlawful possession of a firearm, reckless conduct and aggravated assault.
Numerous additional charges are expected, Christopher Covelli, deputy chief for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, told Patch. It’s unclear at this point if a kidnapping charge will be among the charges filed, he said.
Authorities are also not releasing information into what the conversations between Szech and the girl entailed prior to her deciding to take the bus from North Carolina to Illinois. He did say it’s safe to say she was lured, considering the fact that he was an adult and she was a child.
“Her being a child and he an adult, even if she came on her own accord, it is not something she can consent to, or even understand if she was being manipulated,” Covelli said.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a petition to detain Szech in custody while awaiting trial. Szech remains held in the Lake County Jail pending an initial court hearing Thursday morning.
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