![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/d1hfln2sfez66z.cloudfront.net\/03-10-2026\/t_eadb3f0db4c74097898223964f5b0f45_name_PKG_CLT_CC_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nBody cam video shows the moment a 16-year-old girl from Gastonia was found in Florida with a 37-year-old Joshua Magraff, who investigators said she somehow met in Charlotte.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s finally back in her Gastonia home after traveling 500 miles all the way to Crescent City, Florida, and federal agents have joined the investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung lady, you wouldn\u2019t happen to have your ID on you, would you?\u201d the officer could be seen on body cam video saying during the traffic stop Sunday night in Crescent City. <\/p>\n
The officer didn\u2019t know, at first, that the girl was reported missing from Gastonia, 475 miles away. It\u2019s a seven-hour nonstop drive from city to city.<\/p>\n
However, the officer knew something wasn\u2019t right about their story.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo sir, that\u2019s my little cousin,\u201d said Magraff in the body cam video.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s your cousin?\u201d the officer said. \u201cHere\u2019s the thing. The name she shared didn\u2019t check out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d said Maj. David Ussery, Putnam County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
The officer convinced the girl to write down her real name and they called Gastonia, Ussery said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter contacting the mother, the mother never knew who this gentleman was,\u201d Ussery said.<\/p>\n
That man was Magraff.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are 37 and you are friends with a 16-year-old girl?\u201d the officer said.<\/p>\n
Officers fear became concerned that this could be a case of trafficking a minor.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could see how comfortable our victim was with this gentleman with this grown man and obviously there has to potential to be some grooming,\u201d Ussery said.<\/p>\n
The major said they see a lot of runaways in Florida who seem comfortable but then things change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey really don\u2019t know the monster that is deep down inside of these people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That is why the sheriff\u2019s office turned to Homeland Security agents to see what happened in the nearly 500 miles between the cities.<\/p>\n
VIDEO: Missing North Carolina teen found during Florida traffic stop<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Missing North Carolina teen found during Florida traffic stop <\/p>\n
\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Body cam video shows the moment a 16-year-old girl from Gastonia was found in Florida with a 37-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4250,28,30,29,88758,634,115,7181,88757,1045],"class_list":["post-189922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-charlotte","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-joshua_mcgrath","tag-local","tag-news","tag-north_carolina","tag-putnam_county_sheriffs_office","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}