Missing Iowa 13-year-old shows up at TN home saying she was kidnapped, cops say

A 13-year-old girl showed up on a doorstep in Tennessee, over 800 miles from her home in Iowa, to say she had been kidnapped, authorities said.

The man who deputies say is responsible for bringing the girl to Tennessee has been identified as 37-year-old Martin Amaya Sandoval Jr., and he’s now been charged with four counts of aggravated statutory rape, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators said they learned Sandoval met the 13-year-old girl on social media. He’s accused of driving 13 hours to West Des Moines, Iowa, on May 24 to pick up the teen and bring her back to his small town of New Market, Tennessee.

Two days later, police in Iowa reached out to deputies in Tennessee to say a missing 13-year-old may be in Jefferson County, according to the sheriff’s office.

Law enforcement visited two different locations before they got a 911 call about a girl “who had shown up at a residence stating she had been kidnapped,” deputies wrote in a news release.

Deputies said they arrived and learned she was the missing teen.

Sandoval was arrested while the girl was brought back to Iowa, where Sandoval is expected to face additional charges, according to law enforcement.

New Market is about a 25-mile drive northeast from Knoxville.