13 year old california girl in protective custody to prevent Pakistani arranged marriage

[Liberal_in_LA]

Girl who hid out to avoid Pakistani arranged marriage is in protective custody

A 13-year-old Hesperia girl and three siblings were in protective custody Thursday morning after authorities discovered the girl holed up at a motel to avoid being taken to Pakistan for an arranged marriage.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department officials said detectives found Jessie Marie Bender safe and in good condition in an Apple Valley motel, where she was being hidden by another family member.

Bender’s mother had told detectives that her daughter did not want to go on a two-month family trip to Pakistan and ran away. She later told police her daughter may have been abducted by someone she had been corresponding with on Facebook, triggering a massive search for the teenager that included local law enforcement, the FBI, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S.Marshals Service and detectives from the Los Angeles and Chicago police departments.

“Bender family members misled detectives and withheld critical information and as a result delayed the investigation and recovery of their daughter Jesse Bender," sheriff’s spokeswoman Roxanne Walker said in a news release. “It was revealed that a member of the Bender family concealed Jess in the town of Apple Valley out of fear that she would be taken to Pakistan for an arranged marriage."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/03/girl-who-hid-in-motel-to-avoid-pakistani-arranged-marriage-in-protective-custody.html

[meegbear]

1. Maybe it's me, but ...

doesn't putting in the story that "... detectives found Jessie Marie Bender safe and in good condition in an Apple Valley motel, where she was being hidden ..." kinda give away where she's being hidden?

[Dogtown]

3. "Protective custody" n/t

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. I just watched a documentary on this topic --

Young British women of Pakistani families who were taken to Pakistan to be married off and left there. Many of them very young. To refuse or to try to escape the marriage is to bring shame on the family. Since they are British citizens, the embassy over there has a task force that can get these young women out of the country and back to England and a safe house. It was really scary -- one young girl called the embassy from a airport telephone saying she thought she was going on vacation with her family but instead was to be married of to a cousin against her wishes. :(