Homeless man accused of living with teen runaway for days in North Phoenix | Crime Files
PHOENIX - Court documents are giving new details in the case of a person who was initially reported missing by members of their family.
The person was reported missing on April 13, and on April 21, police arrested a man who spent time with the missing person.
Here are the details on the case.
Who's the suspect?
Court documents identified the suspect as 21-year-old Shawn Paul Riherd, a homeless person who had been in Arizona for three to four months prior to his arrest. Police said Riherd had previous run-ins with the law, but the exact nature of the run-ins were redacted.
It should be noted that officials are not accusing Riherd of kidnapping in connection with the case.
What happened?
The missing person, who police identified as a teenager, told their mother on April 12 that they were spending the night at a friend's house. However, the teen never returned home, and their mother reported them as missing on April 13.
On that same day, investigators said the teen and their mother had a brief text exchange, which indicated that they were upset with their parents. The teen later stopped responding to their family.
Investigators say the teen's phone was found by a good Samaritan on a city bus in Tempe on April 14. The phone was eventually turned over to police, where it was discovered that many of the text messages from April 12 to April 14 were deleted. Photos found on the phone show the teen with two different people on April 13 and 14, one of whom was described as having "very distinctive tattoos on his face and neck."
While police found an Instagram account associated with that man, the account had the name "Shawn Rodrigues" associated with it.
"The male could not be positively identified using that name in both law enforcement and open-source database searches," investigators wrote.
The teen's family hired a private investigation service to help find them, and on April 17, police said several tips suggested the two were at an apartment complex near Dunlap Avenue and I-17. While police missed them, they did find a Social Security card with Riherd's name on it at the apartment.
Police said Riherd and the teen were found on April 21 outside an abandoned department store at the former MetroCenter Mall. The teen was taken to a hospital as they appeared ill and had vomited. At the hospital, they tested positive for marijuana, meth, and fentanyl.
Investigators said when Riherd was interviewed, they learned that he and the teen met via a mutual friend, and that he felt obligated to take care of them because the streets were unsafe. Riherd also said the teen originally ran away from home because they were angry with their parents, and they wanted to see this person who was only identified as a "juvenile male."
"The group stayed at the Dunlap apartment until the arrest of the juvenile male. After he was arrested, the [teen] and Shawn lived together on the street from Wednesday through Sunday, when they were located," court documents mention.
Riherd also told investigators he knew the missing teen was a runaway, and when asked when he planned to do with the teen if they were never contacted by police, Riherd said he would "wait till she's of age, go to Mexico, and get her a house."
When police challenged Riherd about his claim that he was protecting the teen but later exposed them to drug use and let them use narcotics, Riherd replied that the teen made that decision, and did it on their own.
What is the suspect accused of?
Riherd is accused of child abuse (A.R.S. 13-3623A1) and custodial interference (A.R.S. 13-1302A1).
Once again, it should be noted that officials are not accusing Riherd of kidnapping in connection with the case.
Meanwhile, a judge has set a $25,000 bond for Riherd, and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 1.
