13-year-old girl ran away to avoid arranged marriage in Pakistan

The truth was worse than the lie.

Authorities and volunteers searching for a missing California teen thought she had been abducted by an Internet predator she met in a Facebook chat.

But the reality was far more troubling. Jessie Bender, a 13-year-old schoolgirl, was hiding from her parents because they were planning to pack her off to Pakistan for an arranged marriage to a total stranger, police said.

The mystery unraveled Wednesday when Jessie was found in a motel 30 miles from her San Bernardino County home.

A relative had hidden the child to protect her from her Pakistani stepfather and American mother, who had allegedly set up the arranged marriage.


Authorities said Jessie was physically unharmed.

"She was afraid to go to Pakistan, and she didn't want to go back home because she was scared," said Roxanne Walker, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

Jessie was reported missing Feb. 22 from her home in the desert community of Hesperia, about 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles, by family members who said she may have run away to avoid going on a two-month trip to Pakistan scheduled for the next day.

Days later, Jessie's mother, Melissa, told police, the media and anyone else who would listen that she believed her daughter had been abducted by someone she met on Facebook.

The claim triggered a local leaflet campaign and a massive search that involved local police, the FBI and US Marshals.

"He was the last person she spoke to," Melissa said on television about the fake Facebook friend. "I was told by her schoolmates that this boy was an influence on her."

In another TV lie, Jessie's stepfather, Mohammad Khan, said he found a phone number for the mystery man in Chicago and called him.

"I just told him to please send her back," Khan said on TV.

Jessie and her three siblings are being held in protective custody by social services. Her parents could face criminal charges.