Man posed as a 15-year-old girl’s father to pick her up from school and take her to an abandoned house: Cops

Some say that a 43-year-old man pretended to be a 15-year-old girl’s father to pick her up from school in Alabama. He then took her to an empty house and “engaged in sexual intercourse.”

It is alleged that Justin Stephens raped a child between the ages of 12 and 15 and also traveled to meet a child for sex and tried to get a child to do something sexual.

Police in Lauderdale County say Stephens called Florence’s Central High School on September 18 and told staff that the girl needed to be checked out.

The girl is said to have entered his black Dodge truck around 9 a.m. and returned to school around 2 p.m., as seen on surveillance cameras.

There was a statement that said Stephens took the girl to an empty house on County Road 222 and that they “engaged in sexual intercourse.” Later, police tracked Stephens to a hotel in nearby Colbert County, where he is said to have admitted to the crime.

He is also said to have admitted that he and the girl had traded naked pictures on his phone. It looks like Stephens drove about 500 miles from his home in Lowmansville, Kentucky, to the school to pick up the girl.

An NBC reporter in Huntsville, Sgt. Josh Casson, said the girl had a cellphone that her parents didn’t know about and that she met Stephens on social media. When the parents found the phone, they gave it to the police, who read the texts that were on it.

Casson said, “Always keep an eye on your kid’s social media.” “Watch who they talk to online and try to make sure their friends aren’t people they don’t know, which is nearly impossible these days.”

The Lauderdale County School System said in a statement that it knew about what happened and was helping the police. It refused to say anything else. Stephens has a $365,000 bond to get out of jail. His lawyer could not be reached right away for comment.