{"id":488674,"date":"2026-10-08T01:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488674\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T01:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:50:19","slug":"man-kidnapped-yuba-city-teen-before-fiery-crash-off-cliff-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488674\/","title":{"rendered":"Man kidnapped Yuba City teen before fiery crash off cliff, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jonathan\"Andres<\/a>YUBA CITY, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\n

A 17-year-old Yuba City girl is safe after police said a Texas man groomed her online, traveled to California, and abducted her before leading authorities on a pursuit that ended with a fiery crash off a cliff.<\/p>\n

The investigation began about 8:35 a.m. Sept. 27, when officers responded to the 400 block of White Rock Drive following a report that the teenager was missing, according to the Yuba City Police Department.<\/p>\n

Police considered the girl at risk because of her age, an underlying medical condition, and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance.<\/p>\n

Officers learned that the teenager had been communicating with 26-year-old Cameron Childers of Texas, Yuba City police Lt. Michael Bullard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey learned that the juvenile had been in communication with a 26-year-old Texas resident, and there was some suspicious communication that was going on,\u201d Bullard said.<\/p>\n

Investigators allege Childers communicated with the teenager through Discord for several weeks or longer. Police said he groomed the girl online before driving from Texas to Yuba City and meeting her the morning she disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do know that it was a matter of weeks, if not longer, that they were communicating through that app,\u201d Bullard said.<\/p>\n

Investigators track vehicle to Bakersfield<\/p>\n

Detectives entered information about Childers\u2019 vehicle into the Flock Safety license plate camera system, police said. Investigators then received information indicating that the vehicle was in the Bakersfield area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the utilization of different investigative techniques like Flock cameras and some other things, they were able to track the 26-year-old Texas resident and learn that he had left Texas and came to Yuba City and was in Yuba City that morning and met up with the juvenile,\u201d Bullard said.<\/p>\n

Yuba City detectives alerted the Bakersfield Police Department and other law enforcement agencies in the area.<\/p>\n

When Bakersfield officers attempted to stop the vehicle, Childers allegedly drove away, beginning a pursuit through the Kern River Canyon toward the Lake Isabella area. The teenager was inside the vehicle, police said.<\/p>\n

California Highway Patrol officers deployed spike strips, but the vehicle continued traveling before leaving the roadway and going off a cliff, according to Yuba City police. The vehicle caught fire after the crash.<\/p>\n

Officers reached the wreckage and pulled Childers and the teenager from the burning vehicle, police said. Both suffered minor to moderate injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaw enforcement officers were able to get down to the vehicle and rescue the victim, who was located in the vehicle safely with minor to moderate injuries,\u201d Bullard said. \u201cThe suspect was also apprehended and safely taken into custody.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teenager was rescued, and Childers was arrested within a day of the initial missing-person report.<\/p>\n

Both Childers and the teen suffered minor-to-moderate injuries, police said. <\/p>\n

In connection with the crimes related to the missing teen, the Yuba City Police Department said it issued a $100,000 Ramey Warrant for the following charges.<\/p>\n

Aiding or encouraging suicide \u2013 401 PCContacting a minor with intent to commit a specified offense \u2013 288.3 PCContributing to the delinquency of a minor \u2013 272 PCRape by force, violence, duress, menace, or fear \u2013 261(a)(1) PCRape of a person prevented from resisting due to an intoxicating, anesthetic, or controlled substance \u2013 261(a)(4) PCKidnapping to commit another specified offense \u2013 209(b)(1) PC<\/p>\n

Childers now sits in the Kern County Jail on Yuba City police’s warrant. Yuba detectives also worked with the Bakersfield Police Department and Kern County District Attorney’s Office for the alleged crimes that happened in their jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

Yuba police said it submitted its investigation to the Kern County DA for review and prosecution of the related charges. <\/p>\n

See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it\u2019s safe to do so at kcra.com\/upload<\/a>.<\/p>\n

See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a> | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"YUBA CITY, Calif. \u2014 A 17-year-old Yuba City girl is safe after police said a Texas man groomed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,324,7,190791,190794,93764,852,23092,16273,14748,11831,28555,473,735,166415,25755,1555,184425,25135,190793,2322,41833,2592,190795,190792,190790,178,190796,16383,190797,190798,190799],"class_list":["post-488674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-bakersfield-police-department","tag-california","tag-cameron-childers","tag-central-valley-jail","tag-childers","tag-chp","tag-cliff","tag-connection","tag-criminal-charge","tag-fiery-crash","tag-flock-safety","tag-kcra","tag-kern-county","tag-kern-county-jail","tag-kidnapping","tag-man","tag-medical-condition","tag-missing-teen","tag-off-a-cliff","tag-officer","tag-pc","tag-pursuit","tag-ramey-warrant","tag-rape-charges","tag-texas-man","tag-vehicle","tag-white-rock-drive","tag-yuba-city","tag-yuba-city-police","tag-yuba-city-police-department","tag-yuba-city-teen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}