13-YEAR-OLD CALIFORNIA GIRL FLEES FAMILY TO AVOID ARRANGED MARRIAGE IN PAKISTAN

The story was first reported here, but I think the UK Daily Mail (via Big Peace) has better coverage:

A 13-year-old schoolgirl who was missing for more than a week ran away because she was terrified by her mother and stepfather's alleged plot to send her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage, police claimed today.

Jessie Bender's parents are accused of keeping their plan secret from detectives after reporting that she had disappeared from their California home.

Their claim that Jessie was abducted by a Facebook predator was proved false after she was discovered hiding with a relative at a hotel about 30 miles from her home in Hesperia, California.

Speaking to MailOnline, Hesperia Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Roxanne Walker said Jessie's stepfather, Mohammad Khan - who is from Pakistan - and her American mother, Melissa, were planning an arranged marriage for the teen.

'There was something to that effect in the works and the daughter was scared.

'She was found with the uncle who was protecting her from the parents,' said Ms Walker.

Detective Gerald Davenport was carrying out interviews today to determine whether the parents will face prosecution.

One line of inquiry is whether there was any intention to involve Jessie in an arranged marriage in Pakistan while she was under age.

Police also slammed the Bender family for 'misleading' them over Jessie's disappearance, wasting time and resources.

Mrs Walker added: ‘Bender family members misled detectives and withheld critical information and as a result delayed the investigation and recovery of their daughter Jessie Bender.'

Jessie's family had reported her missing on February 22.

They told police they feared she had been abducted by a man she met on Facebook.
It later emerged her mother Melissa admitted to police that the family were set to go on a two-month trip to Pakistan on February 23.

[...] Jessie and her three siblings have been taken to child protective custody by county social services, and no arrests have been made.

Of the parents? Well I will say that they should both be, and definitely ostracized by the neighborhood they live in, for attempting to sell their daughter into slavery, and the mother has pegged herself as complicit in perversion and deviation from western values. As you'll see when you read the article in full, they raised a lot of ruckus for nothing through their conspiracy of silence unto the police, whom they didn't have the courage to admit their true intentions. They should both be jailed for attempted abuse of an underage girl.