Girl, Canadian tracked via cell phone

POTTERVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) - Federal court documents show how authorities were able to track a missing 12-year-old Kansas girl all the way to rural Eaton County in Michigan using her cell phone.

The 12-year-old El Dorado, Kan. girl was allegedly abducted from her home by Canadian Stewart Kenneth Cody McGill, 20, according to the court documents.

Monday, federal prosecutors charged McGill with transporting a minor out of state to have sex.

The two met playing the online role-playing game "World of Warcraft." They continued to communicate through the game and then through McGill's cell phone, according to a search warrant application.

That application requests permission to search a 2003 Chevrolet Impala currently in the possession of Michigan State Police that McGill allegedly took from his parents and used to transport the girl across state lines.

McGill disappeared from his Bewdley, Ontario home on Wednesday along with the Impala, according to the document. His parents reported the vehicle and their son missing the same day.

The girl was reported missing by her father on Thursday, according to the document.

Court records show the missing girl's father had placed a tracking feature on her phone and was able to follow the pair's northward journey.

Friday, the girl's father contacted Michigan authorities and told them he had tracked her phone to an area in rural Eaton County. Michigan State Police then issued an Amber Alert.

The pair was soon found in the Impala near M-50 in Eaton County after being spotted by a couple who recognized the car's license plate number from the Amber Alert.

After being taken into custody, McGill admitted he sent at least one explicit photo to the girl through his cell phone, the court documents show. She told investigators that she sent him an explicit photo of herself in return.

McGill also admitted he touched the 12-year-old sexually, but he said he stopped when she said she was uncomfortable, according to the court records.

A federal investigator alleges in the documents that McGill was in violation of a Kansas law that prohibits sexual exploitation of children and that he admits he broke the law by having a sexually-explicit photo of the 12-year-old in his possession.

McGill was taken to the Eaton County Jail pending extradition to Kansas. As of Tuesday night, Eaton County Jail records showed his status as "transferred."