PROVIDENCE - Federal prosecutors on Friday charged a Missouri man with sex trafficking in the disappearance of a 17-year-old developmentally disabled girl who went missing Monday after leaving a library with the man in Medfield, Mass., and then turned up Thursday morning in Coventry.
Stephen Ardrey, of Springfield, Missouri, was charged with sex trafficking of a child and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity.
Ardrey, who is facing 10 years to life for both charges, was ordered held without bail by federal magistrate Patricia A. Sullivan. Ardrey, as is custom in federal cases, entered no plea at this time.
Brittany Thompson walked out of the Medfield Public Library with Ardrey on Monday afternoon. Police said it appeared she had met him on line. Video released by police at the time shows a man now identified as Ardrey entering the library and then a moment later turning to leave as the girl follows him out the door.
Her parents reported her missing after her mother went to the library around 5 p.m. to pick Brittany up.
Media reports of her disappearance generated many leads which led police first to Boston and then to southern states, said Medfield Police Chief Robert Meaney on Thursday, hours after a passerby in Coventry saw Ardrey and the teenager walking down a street in Coventry.
Meaney said the person who alerted Coventry police said something about the pair looked awry.
Ardrey put up no resistance and he initially faced no charges.