Early Thursday morning, authorities apprehended a 28-year-old man from Minnesota after pulling over his vehicle en route to Iowa. Inside, they discovered a 7-year-old girl who had been abducted and sexually assaulted.

Joseph Andrew Bragg now faces charges that include kidnapping and first-degree criminal sexual conduct, as detailed by KSTP.

The young girl was reported missing on Wednesday evening. She was last seen being dropped off by her school bus at approximately 3:40 p.m., but she never arrived home. Concerned, her mother reached out to the girl’s father and grandmother, who confirmed they hadn’t seen her. This prompted the mother to alert law enforcement.

According to court documents, the girl’s mother recounted an unusual online encounter with the suspect that occurred in December. She explained that Bragg had sent her a friend request on Facebook, which she accepted, assuming he might be related to one of her friends. It soon became apparent that he had merely stumbled upon her profile and was interested in initiating a conversation.

The mother shared that Bragg inquired about her personal life, asking if she had children. He expressed a desire to have kids himself and mentioned he was amenable to dating women who already had children. Additionally, Bragg claimed to work in childcare and inquired if she knew anyone in need of such services.

The mother eventually blocked him. The child father also said he didn’t know Bragg.

The criminal complaint says that investigators linked the Facebook profile to Bragg, learned he had access to a rental pickup truck, and started tracking his cell phone, Minnesota Public Radio reported. The cell phone showed him traveling south in Interstate 35 toward Iowa, and police in Albert Lea spotted the truck at a truck stop and stopped it, finding the missing girl in the back seat.

Location data on the rental truck placed it near the victim’s home in Zimmerman around the time she was abducted, and it was in the same spot the day before. The court documents also say that Bragg took the girl to a hotel in Plymouth after the abduction.

The victim told investigators that Bragg raped her.