Missing 12-year-old from Florida found at man’s home 500 miles away, SC cops say

A 21-year-old man brought a missing 12-year-old girl he met on an app from Florida to South Carolina to be “living partners,” deputies said.

Records show Jose Miguel Portillo Lagos is charged with criminal sexual conduct with a minor and being a fugitive from justice, and he has holds with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division developed information about the possible location of a missing girl from Florida on May 22, according to a report.

Deputies with the Union County Sheriff’s Office said they went to Lagos’ home in Union and found the 12-year-old girl there, but not Lagos.

The girl told investigators Lagos was working in Georgia, then he went to the sheriff’s office the next day for an interview, deputies said.

Lagos told deputies through a translator that he met the girl on an app, thinking she was 16, according to the report. He drove to Tampa about a week earlier May 17, picked the girl up and drove her over 500 miles back to South Carolina to be “living partners,” investigators wrote.

He said the girl told him she was being abused, according to the report.

The girl had bruises on her neck when law enforcement found her, and Lagos told deputies he had performed sex acts on the girl, investigators said.

The 12-year-old was placed into protective custody and taken to a hospital, according to the sheriff’s office.

Union County is about a 70-mile drive northwest from Columbia.

This story was originally published May 29, 2025 at 1:53 PM with the headline "Missing 12-year-old from Florida found at man’s home 500 miles away, SC cops say."