A 13-year-old boy who was allegedly abducted by a man he met chatting on a video game platform has been safely reunited with his mother.
On Tuesday, an AMBER Alert was issued in Utah for Evan McConney, 13. He was eventually found overnight Tuesday at a gas station with Aaron Zeman, 26, who police believe kidnapped the boy.
He and his mother were reunited on Wednesday afternoon in Grand Island, Nebraska.
"I’m ecstatic, I’m relieved, there’s so just so many emotions," his mother, Heather McConney, told Fox 13.
Police believe Mr Zeman, an Arizona resident, had been chatting with Evan over an Oculus virtual reality device before driving from Arizona and allegedly convincing the boy to leave his home on Monday night.
Ms McConney was aware the two had been communicating, and found their exchanges troubling enough to report them to police.
According to Lt Travis Lyman with the Layton Police Department, Ms McConney turned over chat logs on Evan’s phone to the them in hopes they could determine the man’s identity.
"She had brought in his phone and we had that. We were going through issuing subpoenas and investigative requests with Twitter and other places to try to identify the suspect," he told Fox 13.
Mr Zeman allegedly then used the Oculus device as an alternative means of chatting with the boy. After convincing him to join him, the two traveled nearly 800 miles to Grand Island, Nebraska.
While stopping for gas, a clerk at the station noticed Mr Zeman reportedly acting strange and notified the police. He reportedly parked his vehicle before turning around and going the wrong way, after which he returned to the gas station.
Police arrived on scene and were able to rescue the boy and arrest Mr Zeman. When ordered to exit the vehicle, Mr Zeman initially refused.
A close friend of the McConney family told Fox 13 that Mr Zeman allegedly asked the boy to bring his passport with him before the pair met on Monday.
"We are grateful that this person was paying attention," Mr Lyman said.
Evan’s mother said she is "forever in debt to this individual."
Mr Lyman said Mr Zeman will face a charge related to kidnapping and also for online enticement connected to the communications he allegedly had with the boy in the weeks leading up to the incident.
Because Mr Zeman traveled with Evan across state lines while the boy was 13 and without his parent’s permission, the crime could be prosecuted at the federal level.
