MARION COUNTY, Fla. – A Marion County man has been sentenced over a year after he drove a missing Ohio teen to his home in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In a release, DOJ officials said that the man — identified as Thomas Ebersole, 32 — had met the 16-year-old girl through online video games back in December 2023.
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But on Dec. 28, 2023, Ebersole drove to Ohio, where the girl lived, and brought her back to his home in Marion County “to engage in sexual activity with her,” investigators revealed.
“After the victim’s family reported her missing, law enforcement identified the (IP) address the victim had used to play video games while at Ebersole’s home,” the release reads. “Law enforcement located and removed the victim from Ebersole’s home on Jan. 3, 2024.”
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Investigative documents show that when federal agents made contact with Ebersole at his home, he initially denied knowing the girl, though he “ultimately hung his head” and said he’d be right back.
A few moments later, Ebersole returned to the doorway with the teen, who was “frustrated but cooperative,” claiming she’d asked Ebersole to commit the act, those documents state.
According to investigators, the girl told detectives that she’d never left Ebersole’s home during the week she’d been missing.
In addition, she admitted that Ebersole had “engaged in sexual intercourse with her multiple times,” which DNA testing confirmed, investigators added.
Detectives also reported that Ebersole had originally communicated with the girl via Discord before taking her to Florida, and he was planning to hide her in his house and have her become his wife.
Ebersole was later arrested and taken into custody. He faced charges of interfering with the custody of a minor, traveling to meet a minor after using a computer to lure her, providing aid to a minor without notifying a parent, and three counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.
However, court records show that these charges were dropped by prosecutors.
But on Thursday, DOJ officials announced that Ebersole had finally been sentenced to 11 years and three months in federal prison for transporting a minor with the intent to engage in sexual activity.
DOJ officials also noted that Ebersole is required to register as a sex offender. He had entered a guilty plea on Jan. 6, 2025.
