Even after a 20th birthday bash, a 40-year-old New Jersey man’s family suspected his Massachusetts girlfriend wasn’t the age she claimed, court documents state.
But it wasn’t until seeing a police department’s Facebook post that they were able to confirm their suspicions — the man’s girlfriend was a missing child.
In January, Christopher Rodriguez was charged in Springfield District Court with kidnapping of a child and enticing a child under 16.
The teenager first ran away from her home on May 21, 2024. Her mother told police she believed the 14-year-old was with her “boyfriend,” Rodriguez, a man who served more than 15 years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in 1999.
The two had been the subjects of a previous report for “suspicious behavior” from April 10, 2024 in which the teenager claimed Rodriguez was her stepfather.
Rodriguez and the teenager then went to Yonkers, New York to live with his family. The family told police the couple had asked to live with them until they “got back on their feet” after living in his 2017 white Ford Transit van for six months.
She was introduced to his family as his 20-year-old girlfriend, according to court documents. But the family told officials they didn’t believe she was 20 due to her “demeanor and youthful appearance.”
Rodriguez’s sister eventually saw a missing persons post from the Springfield Police Department with the girl’s photo. The discovery led to a confrontation between Rodriguez and the family.
Rodriguez and the teen then left to live with different family members, who did not know about the previous situation, in Staten Island. But around February 2025, another disturbance caused them to leave.
Six months later, New Hampshire Police responded to a report of a suspicious motor vehicle. The driver of the large white van, Rodriguez, told officers he was waiting for his girlfriend, who was in the bathroom. He claimed she was 20 years old and that they had met a few months prior, according to court documents.
Police, however, were able to discover the teenager’s true identity. Rodriguez was arrested and the teenager was released to the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.
“We don’t know what would have happened if that citizen didn’t report it,” Londonderry (New Hampshire) Detective Sgt. Chris Olson told WMUR. “We conducted our investigation based on their suspicion. They saw something, they said something. It turned out to actually have a very good ending.”
Rodriguez was involved in an armed robbery in New York City in 1999 and was convicted of first-degree robbery and second-degree murder out of Kings County Supreme Court, in New York, according to the United States Marshals Service District of New Hampshire.
Rodriguez was released in 2017.
