An 18-year-old Palm Coast man has been apprehended following a multi-state investigation that led investigators to Houston, Texas, where a missing 15-year-old girl was found and safely recovered.
According to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a home on Beckner Lane on January 11 after receiving a report of a missing child. The girl’s father told deputies that he believed his daughter was with Brandon Lee Gray II, 18, and that Gray had previously taken her out of state without authorization in December 2025. During the previous instance, the juvenile was found with Gray in Valdosta, Georgia, and Gray was expressly warned that the girl was 15 years old and that he was not allowed to contact her. The incident was not reported to police enforcement at the time.
Gray had purchased two bus tickets to Houston under bogus names and using his mother’s bank account, according to detectives. On January 11, the Houston Police Department assisted in locating the kid at a bus terminal in Houston. HPD’s Missing Persons Unit took her into protective custody and returned her to Florida…