10:50 a.m. Saturday Update
The Henry County Sheriff’s Office will be holding a news conference at 3 p.m. on Saturday to release information about the abduction of Allie Broadaway.
10 News will be streaming that news conference live on WSLS 10, our website, our Facebook page and our app.
ORIGINAL STORY
Virginia State Police issued an Amber Alert after a child abduction authorities say happened Friday afternoon.
12-year-old Allie Michele Broadaway is believed to be in extreme danger and was reported missing by her family at about 1:45 p.m. at 2373 Reed Creek Drive in Bassett.
Allie is about 4 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs around 107 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a gray James Madison University sweatshirt and dark-colored fleece pants.
Authorities believe she was abducted by a 21-year-old man from Texas, Kaleb Christopher Merritt.
Merritt is 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs about 250 pounds with brown hair and green eyes.
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Police believe he’s possibly driving a 2000 light green Mercury Grand Marquis with Texas plate DMP-2294.
The Henry County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by the Southwestern Virginia Internet Crimes against Children Task Force on Thursday about a complaint regarding social media messages exchanged between Broadaway and Merritt.
Investigators discovered that Merritt has been frequenting a 24-hour fitness facility located on Greensboro Road where they were able to locate him and seize his electronic device for forensic analysis.
Through further investigation, authorities found that Merritt and Allie met in December 2020 on Instagram where they communicated until Merrit traveled to Virginia in early February 2021 to meet her.
Authorities discovered that Merritt set up a camp in a wooded area behind her home and met with her on several occasions before he used a messaging app to tell her to leave her home.
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Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry said with what they knew Thursday, they weren’t allowed to arrest Merritt.
“We checked. We pushed every avenue there was, but there just wasn’t probable cause at that time,” said Perry. “We’re just trying to safeguard against everything we can.”
Below is an interview 10 News reporter Shayne Dwyer did with Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry late Friday night about Allie’s abduction:
Authorities believe that after being coerced to leave her home, she was picked up by Merritt and hasn’t been seen since.
Perry said that while Allie may have willingly gone with Merritt, she is still a minor, so authorities are treating this as a child abduction case.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Henry County Sheriff’s Office at 276-638-8751.
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