A 14-year-old girl Arizona girl who told investigators she escaped from a North Las Vegas home where she'd kept for a month and sexually attacked has been reunited with her family, police said Saturday.
North Las Vegas police Officer Steven Wiese said investigators don't believe the girl was the only teenage victim.
The girl fled Thursday afternoon from a home in a middle-class neighborhood near Camino Al Norte and Washburn Road and called 911 from a convenience store, Wiese said.
Police later stopped a vehicle and arrested 26-year-old Jimmy Carter Kim, who was booked Friday into the Las Vegas City Jail pending an initial court appearance on on charges of first-degree kidnap of a minor and 20 counts of sexual assault.
Efforts on Saturday to identify Kim's lawyer weren't immediately successful.
Wiese said police obtained a warrant and searched Kim's home on Dawn Valley Drive, finding a gun and evidence that other children may have been held and attacked.
The girl was examined at a local hospital before being reunited with her family in Bullhead City, Arizona, about 100 miles south of Las Vegas, Wiese said. Her name wasn't disclosed. ABC 15 generally does not identify people who say they are victims of sex crimes.
Wiese said the girl told investigators she was abducted in early November by a man in a vehicle.
Jimmy Carter Kim's father, Dennis Kim said they've lived in the same house for over a decade.
"Jimmy did not kidnap her," he said. "I still support him 100 percent."
Dennis also said that his son has always had “a lot of girlfriends.”
He says, "They come here voluntarily," and that he’s even met some of them.
"Sometimes I see them sitting here watching TV," he says.
He took ABC 15's sister station (KTNV) to the second floor of the home where his son has three bedrooms. He showed all of them including one where he says he saw Jimmy's last girlfriend sleeping Wednesday night.
"I cracked the door, I saw something, and I closed it right away."
But the door to that particular bedroom wasn’t just any door. It locked from the outside only. While Dennis admits the reversed-lock is peculiar, he pointed out a window that makes for an easy escape if you don't mind a long jump. Dennis said he believes the young girl ran away from her home in Arizona, and now wants to go back without consequences from her parents.
As for her age, he says, “I told him many times. Not underage."
In searching the home, investigators found evidence that suggests the 14-year-old girl may not be the only victim.
Witnesses or potential victims are asked to call the North Las Vegas Police Department at 702-633-9111 or Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.
