Two siblings under the age of 18 were rescued by police after reportedly being kidnapped by a 19-year-old man they’d met on Roblox.
The siblings, two sisters aged 12 and 15, were reported missing on the evening of Saturday, January 31st.
Their parents had taken away their mobile devices as punishment for going to a park the day prior. They left their home later that same day to meet the 19-year-old, who drove them from Omaha, Nebraska to Indiantown, Florida, over 1,500 miles away.
Authorities believed the girls had first communicated with the man, a US citizen named Hser Mu Lah Say, via online gaming platform Roblox in summer 2025, later moving their conversations to Snapchat.
The girls’ family warned deputies of these communications and handed over the girls’ cell phones, where officers found a “constant thread of communication between this individual and these two young girls,” as well as their plans to leave the state.
“The family told us that they saw some weird things that were going on involving gifts, specifically food for the most part, showing up to the house,” Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said in a press conference, calling the conversations “a grooming process that the suspect was doing with these young girls.”
Police warn parents after Roblox-linked kidnapping of two sisters
In the early hours of Sunday, February 1, officers with the Georgia State Highway Patrol stopped a vehicle connected to the case, successfully detaining Hser Mu Lah Say.
He is now in a Georgia jail, charged with two counts of kidnapping and two counts of interference with child custody.
Budensiek urged parents to be aware of their children’s online activities in a press conference after the arrest.
“There is no application online that’s safe,” he said. “If you can communicate with somebody away from your house in the quiet of your own room, it can be a problem. So parents have to be vigilant.”
Roblox’s chief safety officer Matt Kaufman gave a statement to ABC News in response to the reported kidnapping, saying the platform is investigating the “deeply troubling incident” and will “fully support law enforcement.”
“Roblox has robust safety policies to protect users that go beyond many other platforms, and advanced safeguards that monitor for harmful content and communications. …While no system is perfect, our commitment to safety never ends, and we continue to strengthen protections to keep users safe.”
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