A 15-year-old reported missing from Massachusetts hitchhiked to Connecticut with a 20-year-old man, who has been charged with sexual assault, according to police.
Police said the teen, who lives in Edgartown, Massachusetts, was last seen over the weekend in Providence, Rhode Island.
Investigators learned she was bound for New York with Gregory Mooney, 20, of Mashpee, Massachusetts.
Police said Mooney and the teen hitched a ride from Cheshire to Wallingford and stopped at the Colony Diner at 611 North Colony Road on Tuesday evening. According to authorities, Mooney used a customer's phone to call a friend, who in turn contacted Edgartown police.
Officers from Wallingford interviewed employees and customers at the diner and searched the area of Mooney and the teen, who had left before police arrived.
They searched parks, woods and stores through the night, and around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, an off-duty Meriden officer reported seeing the couple at the Wal-Mart on North Colony Road, according to police.
Wallingford police found the couple at the Wal-Mart store and arrested Mooney for shoplifting. He was also charged with second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor.
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Mooney was held on a total of $55,000 bond and is due in court June 8.
Police said the teen was sent home with her parents.
