Decatur Man Charged In FL Accused Of Imprisoning Missing Teen

DECATUR, GA — A man from Decatur was arrested in Florida after law enforcement authorities found a 15-year-old girl from Texas — who was reported missing — staying at his vacation rental home.

Vincent Joseph Robusto, 38, was taken into custody in Port Charlotte, Florida on Friday and booked into the Charlotte County jail on charges of imprisoning a person against their will, giving drug paraphernalia to a minor and interfering with custody of a minor, as well as other charges, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

The Dilley Police Department in Texas contacted the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office about the missing teenage girl, and investigators said the girl told her parents she was going to "an all-inclusive church retreat in Florida," according to a news release from the CCSO. Her parents called the police after they didn't hear from their daughter for several days.

Investigators tracked her phone to a vacation rental home on Ohara Drive, and when officers knocked on the door, they saw a man — now understood to be Robusto — run to the back room, refusing to open the door or acknowledge the deputies' presence, the release said.

Deputies were able to persuade him to come out of the house, along with the Texas teenager.

The teen told investigators that when she got off the plane at Fort Myers, she started walking down the street when she was greeted by Robusto. They went back to the Ohara Drive home where they had dinner, she said, and he gave her a vape pen with an unknown substance in it.

The church camp she was supposed to attend told police that she was never registered for the camp, and had also never attended their church. Friends of the teen said she had been "communicating with an older man via social media apps," the release said. Police also obtained a search warrant for Robusto's home and found eight rounds of ammunition inside a magazine of a semi-automatic handgun.

Robusto faces charges of false imprisonment of a person against their will; interference with custody of a minor; two counts of possession of firearm ammunition or weapon by a U.S. convicted felon; and drug paraphernalia - delivery to a minor, according to jail records.

He was booked into the Charlotte County jail Friday and has yet to be released. His bond is set at $325,000. The teen has since been reunited with her family in Texas.