Missing teen found alive in Virginia, suspect charged

A 19-year-old woman who vanished as a teenager in 2022 has been found alive in Virginia, where authorities allege she was held captive for years by a man she met online. Joniah Walker, who was 15 when she disappeared from Milwaukee, was discovered on May 23 at a residence in Blacksburg, Virginia, after police responded to a domestic disturbance call at the home.

The suspect, 37-year-old Owen Lars Anderson, has been charged in both Wisconsin and Virginia. Wisconsin authorities have filed charges of kidnapping, child enticement, and abduction. In Virginia, he faces local charges including abduction, strangulation, child abuse, and preventing a 911 call. He is currently being held without bond at the Western Virginia Regional Jail and is awaiting extradition to Wisconsin. A preliminary hearing on the Virginia charges is scheduled for August 21.

According to a criminal complaint, Walker traveled from Milwaukee to Chicago by Uber on June 23, 2022, to meet Anderson, with whom she had been communicating online since she was 12. Authorities allege that after meeting her outside a Chicago movie theater, Anderson disposed of her cell phone and a burner phone he had provided, then...