{"id":231735,"date":"2026-04-14T20:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231735\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T20:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:19:10","slug":"missing-florida-teen-found-hidden-in-registered-sex-offenders-closet-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231735\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing Florida teen found hidden in registered sex offender\u2019s closet"},"content":{"rendered":"

POLK COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A 17-year-old girl from Florida who had been reported missing was found hidden in the bedroom closet of a registered sex offender in Polk County.<\/p>\n

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office<\/a> said that detectives from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office contacted them on Monday with information about the missing teenager believed to be in Dundee. <\/p>\n

Following this lead, Polk County Sheriff’s Office detectives reported visiting 30-year-old Alexis Diaz-Toledo\u2019s home on Shepard Avenue to search for the girl.<\/p>\n

At the scene, Diaz-Toledo, a registered sex offender, allegedly denied knowing the girl\u2019s whereabouts and initially refused to allow detectives to search his residence. <\/p>\n

See also: 8 busted in Florida raid after complaints of heavy traffic at suspected drug den<\/a><\/p>\n

However, upon further investigation, detectives said that they determined that Diaz-Toledo had violated his sex offender registration by failing to report two vehicles stored at his home.<\/p>\n

Eventually, authorities conducted a search and reported finding the missing teenager hidden in Diaz-Toledo’s closet. She was safely returned home.<\/p>\n

Diaz-Toledo was arrested and taken to the Sheriff’s Processing Center, facing multiple charges, including:<\/p>\n

Two counts of Failure to Comply with Sex Offender Registration Requirements (Third Degree Felony)Interfering with Custody of a Minor (Third Degree Felony)Sheltering a Minor Without Notifying the Parent (Misdemeanor)Providing False Information to Law Enforcement in a Missing Person Investigation (Misdemeanor)<\/p>\n

Since his conviction in 2014 for Lewd and Lascivious Battery against a victim aged 12-15, Diaz-Toledo has been a registered sex offender. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"POLK COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A 17-year-old girl from Florida who had been reported missing was found hidden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-231735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231735","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=231735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}