Palm Coast Man Faces Felony for Interfering in Custody of Missing Girl, 17

Christopher McMurphy, a 20-year-old resident of Ryecroft Lane in Palm Coast, faces a third-degree felony charge following accusations that he interfered with the custody of a 17-year-old girl who’d been reported missing on May 21.

A Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy spotted McMurphy and the girl in mid-afternoon on Tuesday as the pair was walking east on Rymfire Drive in Palm Coast. The deputy was not necessarily aware of who they were at that point. They’d initially come out of the woods next to a house, but when they saw the deputy’s car slowing down to turn around, “the female took off in the opposite direction and then turned south back into the woods and was later located by responding deputies,” an incident report notes.

McMurphy at first hesitated to speak with the cop, but then began explaining. Just then, the girl’s 35-year-old mother, a resident of Palm Coast’s B Section, “pulled up and got out screaming,” according to the incident report. The girl’s mother told the deputy that McMurphy had been with her daughter since she’d been reported missing by Ormond Beach police.

McMurphy did not deny the claim. He said he’d picked up the girl from her job in Ormond Beach and that he and the girl had been together since. He told the deputy he knew that her parents had reported her missing,”but failed to notify her parents or law enforcement of her whereabouts because [the girl] did not want to go back home and was waiting until she turned 18″ today (May 24).

The girl was released to her mother. The Ormond Beach Police Department was notified that she had been recovered. And McMurphy was arrested on a charge of interfering with the custody of a minor. He was released on his own recognizance shortly after his booking at the county jail. His arraignment before Circuit Judge Dennis Craig is scheduled for July 10.