ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. — UPDATE: The father of a missing 16-year-old girl said his daughter and her 17-year-old boyfriend have been found safe in Mebane on Monday.
According to the father, deputies were able to ping the teens' phones after their parents got a strange message on social media. He said this provided a loophole in the Romeo and Juliet law that gave law enforcement legal reason to believe the kids could have been in danger, allowing them to legally track their phones.
PREVIOUS REPORT:
We are approaching the 72-hour mark of an ongoing search for two runaway Alamance County teens.
Sheriff's deputies said their hands are tied due to state law surrounding the age of consent.
WFMY News 2 looked into how an exception in the law affects this investigation.
16-year-old Jessica Holt allegedly ran away with her 17-year-old boyfriend Michael Strothman.
Due to state law, both their parents are at the mercy of the teens returning home themselves.
Being that Holt is a suspected runaway and is of the consenting age of 16, deputies cannot press charges or force her or Strothman to come home.
NC state's "close in age exemption" law, also known as the Romeo and Juliet law, is preventing Alamance County deputies from getting more involved.
The law allows underage couples between the ages of 16 and 17 who consent, to legally engage with each other.
This creates a fine line between statutory rape and consent.
Jessica's father Samuel Holt questions this law after his daughter and her boyfriend allegedly ran away on January 26.
"We should be able to get a little bit more help," Holt said. "Law enforcement have told me they cannot by law because she's 16 and he's 17 and they fall in that Romeo and Juliet law."
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Alamance County Sheriff's Deputies said:
"Here’s where we are with Jessica Holt. We have entered her in the national law enforcement database as Runaway Juvenile. Our Detectives are monitoring social media activity. We have had success in past cases because of social media. At present, we have reason to believe that Jessica is in the company of a 17-year-old male who she knows. We also have reason to believe that she is safe and in Alamance County or the immediate area." - Byron Tucker ACSO Director of Communications
Holt's parents don't believe their daughter is safe. They said the teens traveled several miles through Alamance County to Mebane and they've been searching for them ever since.
"Being out in the middle of the night, being cold. It's not safe," her father said. "Neither one of them has a vehicle, it's hard to believe that they got from Burlington to Mebane on their own."
We asked a legal expert who is not associated with this investigation for their perspective.
"The law says that there might be an element of consent, meaning they both agreed to do this together. They are so close to the age where they're no longer considered a juvenile that the law doesn't have ability to force or prevent this from happening," NC civil and Criminal Defense Attorney Jason Keith said.
Law enforcement asks if you see Jessica Holt or Michael Strothman to please call 911. WFMY News 2 spoke to Strothman's mother who said she wants to see the two teens return home safe.