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A 28-year-old Bay Shore man was indicted Friday on kidnapping and child endangerment charges for allegedly using an online gaming app to lure an 11-year-old Queens girl and take her across county lines to his Suffolk County home, prosecutors said.
Nicholas Wieber pleaded not guilty to first- and second-degree kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child.
Authorities located the child inside Wieber’s residence on Dec. 13, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said. Wieber allegedly began communicating with the child in earlier in December through Discord, a free messaging and gaming platform widely used by children.
Prosecutors said the conversations quickly became sexual in nature.
On Dec. 12, the girl went to school in Queens but never came home, Tierney said. When her mother went to the bus stop that afternoon, her daughter was not there.
After contacting the child’s friends, the mother learned the girl had allegedly been picked up by an older man, prosecutor said. She called the New York Police Department, which began searching for the child.
The investigation led police to Wieber’s Bay Shore address the following night. Suffolk County Police went to the home and allegedly found the child inside Wieber’s bedroom in a state of undress, authorities said. Cops arrested Wieber at the scene and the child was reunited with her family.
“This case underscores the exceptional work of law enforcement, whose coordinated response led to the recovery of a kidnapped child,” Tierney said. “Their vigilance, skill, and determination ensured the child was found safely and returned to her parents without delay.”
Wieber was arraigned before Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro, who ordered him held on $250,000 cash bail, $500,000 bond, or a $2.5 million partially secured bond while the case proceeds. He is due back in court on Feb. 17 and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted on the top charge.
Top: Inset, AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, and main, Suffolk County courthouse in Rvierhead (Google Maps).
