A 13-year-old Louisiana girl who vanished from her Keithville home Thursday morning was found safe in Texas after an Amber Alert triggered a fast-moving search across state lines. Merlin Chirinos Argueta was reported missing from Bain Boulevard at about 6:30 a.m. on May 7.
The Louisiana State Police issued a Level II Endangered/Missing Child Advisory that day for Argueta on behalf of the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, and Detective Christopher Ardoin requested an Amber Alert through the Texas Department of Public Safety. After the alert went out, investigators received tips that led authorities to the vehicle believed to have been used in the abduction.
Allen Police Department officers then responded and spoke with Arlin Hernandez Dubon, who told investigators he drove Daniel Osman Vasquez Mejia, 18, to the place where Argueta was taken without parental consent. Dubon also may have driven a white Chevy Tahoe with Texas license plate VML-6061 that was seen in the area around the time Argueta vanished. He later told investigators where Argueta and Vasquez Mejia could be found.
Allen police found Argueta and Vasquez Mejia in Texas. The teen was detained and arrested by the Collin County Sheriff’s Office on a charge of harboring a runaway, while Ardoin obtained a warrant for simple kidnapping under Louisiana Revised Statute 14:45. Argueta is now in the custody of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services while arrangements are made for her return to her parents.
The case began as a missing-child report in Keithville and quickly widened into an interstate search, with tips from the public helping authorities track down the pair in Texas. Investigators said the work is not over. They are still trying to determine whether additional criminal offenses occurred while Argueta was missing.
What is already clear is that the search ended with the girl alive and located across state lines, and the next phase now belongs to prosecutors and child welfare officials, not the search teams that first raced to find her.
