New Details Emerge in Camp Pendleton Trafficking Case

More information has emerged in the case of the young girl who was allegedly trafficked at Camp Pendleton by a Marine. Recently-obtained investigative documents shed more light on the incident.

The investigation is still ongoing, but Military.com obtained documents related to the matter:

While the young girl at the heart of this story went missing in early June, federal investigators concluded that she had been at Camp Pendleton for only about 24 hours and appeared to have met the Marine whose barracks room she would come to stay in just a day prior.

The documents also show that investigators have begun to look into the claims that the girl was a victim of human trafficking. So far, investigators are reporting that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), which is being aided by several other agencies, has been unable to find any corroborating evidence to back up those claims.

The documents seen by Military.com say that when agents first interviewed the Marine and the victim, both said they met on the dating app “Tinder” where the girl used a different name and claimed to be 22. The Marine told investigators the connection happened on June 26 — a day before he would help drive her onto Camp Pendleton — and admitted to having had sexual contact with the girl in his barracks room.

The investigative documents also note that the Marine allowed agents to take all the data from his cell phone, including later messages in which the victim admitted to lying to the Marine about her age.

On June 27, a Marine, accompanied by a fellow service member and a young female victim, breached a security checkpoint at Camp Pendleton. While the Marine and the victim spent time in his barracks room, the roommate later kicked her out, leading her to seek help from the Marine to regain entry.

However, she was later discovered wandering the barracks by Navy corpsmen, and the incident was reported to NCIS. The victim had been reported missing by her family on June 13, but she had a history of running away from home. The San Diego Sheriff’s Department and the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force are assisting in the investigation.

Capt. Charles Palmer, a spokesman for the 1^st Marine Logistics Group, told the news outlet that the Marine “was questioned by NCIS and released to his command pending further investigation.” No arrests have yet been made.

Casaundra Perez, the girl’s aunt, posted a video on TikTok in which she alleged that the Marine had trafficked her niece and accused the military of trying to cover up the matter:

The security looked her in the face and allowed this man to bring a minor onto base, where he then proceeded to have sex with her. Due to her age, she could not have given this consent. We’ve just had an interview with someone referred to us by the military.

In this meeting, we were told by the affiliated personnel that the military detective assigned to the case is trying to cover this up. As you can imagine, this is upsetting and absolutely unacceptable. I have the lead detective’s name and phone number and will be releasing it to the public, pending confirmation from our attorney. Our hope in doing so is to both bring attention to my niece’s case and to ensure that this does not go away upon release of more details. We hope you would join us in calling and demanding both release of details as well as the pursuit of justice.