MARICOPA, AZ — A Maricopa man is accused of traveling across state lines to abduct a 15-year-old Wyoming girl police say he had groomed online. Authorities say Dalton Renollet, 36, was arrested in South Dakota on Monday, less than five hours after the teen was reported missing.
Law enforcement said the girl vanished Monday morning around 10 a.m. and was quickly treated as a missing juvenile at risk. By the afternoon, officers had located the vehicle, stopped it on Interstate 90 and rescued her.
Police credited the fast outcome to coordination between local, state and federal agencies, along with automated license plate readers that tracked the suspect’s car.
How investigators traced the car across state lines
The Crook County Sheriff’s Office said investigators in Sundance, Wyoming, were already examining reports that an out-of-state adult had been grooming the teen online. That investigation was already underway when the girl disappeared Monday morning.
Authorities initially believed Renollet might be heading back to Arizona through Utah. Instead, license plate reader hits showed the vehicle moving east into South Dakota. Wyoming authorities passed that information to South Dakota state troopers.
Troopers spotted the car on Interstate 90 near the Aurora County line, about 415 miles from the girl’s home. Officers then pulled Renollet over and took the teen to safety.
The rescue happened within an hour of the tip
South Dakota officials said the arrest and rescue came together quickly once the vehicle was identified. Officers reached the car and recovered the girl at about 2:30 p.m., less than an hour after receiving the tip that put troopers on the suspect’s path.
The timeline mattered because the search moved from a missing-person response to a cross-state recovery in the same day. Investigators said the speed of the rescue depended on the early sharing of information between agencies and the use of reader technology.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said the girl was brought to safety through the work of law enforcement and the technology used to locate her. He said the case showed how useful those tools can be when a vulnerable juvenile is at risk.
Charges filed in South Dakota while Wyoming and federal cases are pending
Renollet is facing a sexual contact with a minor charge in South Dakota, and authorities say additional charges are pending in Wyoming and federal court. He remained held Friday in the Davison County jail in South Dakota.
Court records cited by authorities show an arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 30. Officials have not said in the publicly released information what other counts may be added, but they indicated the investigation is still active in multiple jurisdictions.
The case moved through at least three systems at once: local investigators in Wyoming, South Dakota troopers on the highway and federal agents assisting the search. That coordination will continue as prosecutors determine how to divide the case between states and federal court.
Wyoming sheriff says online grooming can escalate fast
Crook County Sheriff Jeff Hodge said this was the second investigation in less than a month involving suspected grooming of a juvenile in the county. He warned that online contact can rapidly turn into serious criminal conduct.
Hodge urged parents to stay involved in their children’s online activity, know who they are talking to and pay attention to behavior changes. He said keeping children safe takes more than law enforcement alone.
His comments framed the case as both a criminal investigation and a warning about the risks of online communication. In his view, schools, parents and the broader community all have a role in spotting concerns early.
Why officials say the technology mattered
Officials repeatedly pointed to license plate reader technology as the key tool that allowed them to find the suspect’s car. Without that data, investigators said they had a narrower view of where Renollet might have gone after the girl disappeared.
Instead, the vehicle was tracked away from the route police had first expected, giving troopers in South Dakota a specific target. That led to a stop on a major interstate and a recovery of the teen before the search stretched much longer.
The Crook County Sheriff’s Office, the Davison County Sheriff’s Office and the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office all contributed information to the case. Their combined account shows how quickly a missing-child investigation can shift when agencies share live information across state lines.
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