A Nebraska man was arrested in Georgia on Monday after he allegedly drove to Florida and abducted two young sisters he met on the gaming app Roblox.
Hser Mu Lah Say, 19, has been charged with kidnapping and interference with custody, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said.
Budensiek said the suspect had been communicating with the girls, ages 12 and 14, since last summer, first on Roblox and then on Snapchat. The family, he said, “figured out something was wrong in the middle of 2025 (and) they thought they shut it down.”
They hadn’t, however. The communication between the girls and the suspect moved to Snapchat and continued in what Budensiek described as a “grooming process” that eventually led to him driving nearly 24 hours from Omaha to Indiantown to pickup the girls, intending to bring them back to Nebraska.
“I know these girls went willingly, but their age suggested that they had been taken and were probably being removed from our area,” Budensiek said.
The family called 911 at about 8 p.m. on Saturday and reported the girls missing. Apparently, Budensiek said, the suspect had arrived Saturday morning and was planning to meet the girls at a park. But before that could happen, the family found them at the park, brought them home, and took their cell phones.
Communication continued via a family tablet, the sheriff said, and eventually the girls again left the house — without their cell phones — and got in the car with him around 6:45 p.m.
When the girls didn’t come home, family called 911.
Detectives were able to recover chats between the suspect and the girls on their phones — including a photo he’d sent them. Then they discovered the same person on surveillance video at a nearby convenience store, and that led to his vehicle.
As investigators searched for the vehicle, the family began to chat with him via the tablet at their home.
“He denied he had them, said he was concerned, that he cares about them and to keep me posted,” the sheriff said. “All the while he has them in his possession travelling on I-75.”
Finally, at about 1 a.m. the Georgia State Patrol saw the vehicle cross into Georgia and stopped it. The girls were inside and Say was taken into custody. He’s now awaiting extradition back to Florida.
“I think we prevented something disastrous,” Budensiek said. “He was repeatedly warning these young girls he could get into trouble. I don’t know what he was gonna do, but it wasn’t gonna be something good.”
Budensiek said he had romantic conversations with the girls, although they saw nothing sexually explicit and don’t believe they stopped anywhere before heading out of Florida.
The family went to Georgia and retrieved the girls.
Budensiek also said that the US Attorney’s Office was reviewing the case to see if any federal charges are warranted.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Hser Mu Lah Say/Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office]
