LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Court documents reveal a Colorado man accused of kidnapping an Indiana teenager and taking her out of state had been messaging her sexually for several months.
On June 15, 20-year-old Kyle Miotke of Elizabeth, Colorado was arrested by Nebraska State Patrol after being alerted that he may be in the company of a missing 13-year-old girl from Lafayette, Indiana. The patrol found the two on Interstate 80 near Kearney, Nebraska.
A probable cause affidavit filed in the Tippecanoe County court details the two had been talking on social media since at least October 2021. The conversations included explicit photos and video calls.
Five months before police say Miotke took the girl from her Indiana home, an officer with the Lafayette Police Department was investigating these explicit videos, talking with the child.
The court document states a digital forensics analyst for the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor’s Office reviewed emails between the girl and Miotke. The messages discussed an ongoing romantic relationship between the two and plans to be together.
The document goes on to state the analyst found messages from Miotke saying he intended to travel from Colorado to Lafayette to see the girl and/or bring her gifts in February 2022 and in the summer of 2022.
Lafayette police were working with Colorado authorities to identify Miotke when the document states he traveled to Lafayette, picked up the girl, and left the state.
Miotke was arrested on local charges in Nebraska for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. In Indiana, Miotke is charged with promotion of sexual trafficking of a younger child, kidnapping where the victim is less than 14 years of age, performing sexual conduct in the presence of a minor, inappropriate communication with a child, and dissemination of matter harmful to minors.
As of the time of this report, Miotke was in Nebraska awaiting extradition to the Tippecanoe County Jail.