Child abduction thwarted in St. Joe Beach
A missing child abducted from Georgia was located, and a suspect arrested, Sunday afternoon in St. Joe Beach.
According to a news release from the Gulf County Sheriff’s Office, at approximately 1:15 p.m. on Sunday, March 30, the Gulf County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by the Sandy Springs Police Department in Sandy Springs, Georgia, a city in Fulton County and a suburb of Atlanta, and notified of a child abduction.
Gulf County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers were given a possible location of the suspect in Gulf County, along with information that the suspect was armed and in a white Mercedes SUV. Dispatchers then issued notification to be on the lookout for the suspect and his vehicle.
Gulf County deputies located the vehicle, and a felony traffic stop was initiated. The deputies, along with officers from the Port St. Joe police department, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Florida Highway Patrol conducted the felony stop on the vehicle at Hwy 98 and Selma Street in St. Joe Beach.
The victim was found safe. The suspect involved in the abduction, 17-year-old Camilo Campagna, was taken into custody on warrants out of the state of Georgia.
Campagna is being charged with child pornography, aggravated child molestation, child molestation – victim between age 14 and 16, possession of child pornography, possession of sexually explicit content, grooming of a minor, loitering and prowling.
The suspect will be detained at the Department of Juvenile Justice in Bay County due to his age.
“We thank the Port St. Joe Police Department, FWC, Florida Highway Patrol, and Sandy Springs Police Department for their assistance,” said Gulf County Sheriff Mike Harrison.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.