ORLANDO,FL– The suspect who was arrested last year after he was found in a hotel room with a missing 13-year-old has officially been sentenced.
Tyler Thompson, now 24-year-old was sentenced to 40 years behind bars and an additional 45 years of sex offender probation for the incident that occurred in February of 2021.
Authorities say the victim was reported missing after she failed to return home from school and missed a basketball game she was supposed to be playing in.
During their search for the teen, one of the teen’s friends told officials that she’d gone to a hotel to meet a man named Tyler from Orlando, whom she’d met and had been communicating with on Snapchat.
The friend also told investigators that her friend was supposed to be picked up from a nearby Dollar Store.
An employee at the store confirmed that a teen had been in the store and that she’d been picked up.
Investigators then started checking motel reservations fitting the description they had been given. At the motel, they discovered a guest registered under Tyler Johnson from Orlando.
When they knocked on the door, they found Johnson with the teen inside of the room.
The teen ran up to the deputy and gave him a hug.
Johnson’s charges included 27 counts of possession of child pornography as well as sexual battery on a child older than 12 but younger than 18, and traveling to meet a minor.