Federal agents in the United States rescued a 17-year-old girl in Oregon on 1 November 2026, after she had asked another player for help inside the online game Among Us. She had been missing for 521 days.
The girl, Kylie Arellano, disappeared from her home in Garden City, Utah, on 29 May 2025. She was only 15 at the time. Federal prosecutors say Adam Hunter Harmel, 39, met her on a social media app, offered her money to travel to Oregon, the drove to Perry, Utah to collect her. Reports say they first spoke on Snapchat. According to the complaint, he threw her phone into a river in Logan Canyon, took her to his home in Huntington, Oregon, and told her she could not leave.
The complaint says Harmel kept her in the basement and slept with a knife under his pillow. A housemate told the FBI that Harmel said he had brought home a “new girlfriend” from Utah. The complaint also alleges that Harmel sexually assaulted her repeatedly in 2025 and 2026.
Harmel gave her a phone with no mobile data, it worked only on Wi-Fi. She used it to play the online game Among Us. In mid-October 2026, she told another minor in the game her real name and said a man held her against her will. That player told a parent, and the parent called the FBI.
On 1 November, the FBI watched a video call with the girl. She showed agents the knife and other evidence. Oregon State Police and federal agents reached the house the same day and took her for medical treatment. Agents arrested Harmel in a traffic stop in Ontario, Oregon, about 48 kilometres (30 miles) away.
A federal complaint, filed on 2 November in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, charged Harmel with transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. Fox 13 reported that a federal indictment followed on the same count. He was due to make his first court appearance on Wednesday 4 November. The law presumes him innocent until a court finds him guilty.
The FBI and the Rich County Sheriff’s Office followed leads across the United States and abroad for more than a year. The Deseret News reports that the FBI called the case “nihilistic violent extremism.”
Several social media users have praised the young player and the parent for acting on a message from a stranger.
