Man Being Charged With Sexual Assault In Case Of Missing 11-Year Old Walnut Hill Girl

July 29, 2022

The former Walnut Hill farm worker that was first named as a suspect in an Amber Alert on Thursday is being charged with sexual assault on a victim under the age of 12.

Brijido Manriquez-Ortiz, 43, is currently detained in Laredo, Texas, and will be extradited back to Escambia County to face charges. Sheriff Chip Simmons said he was an undocumented farm worker.

Thursday, an 11-year old girl was discovered missing from a home in Walnut Hill. Simmons said she was first believed to be in the company of Manriquez-Ortiz based on a note that was left behind and his relationship with her.

Simmons said the girl and Brijido-Ortez were working on a farm in Walnut Hill where her father, Carlos Fernandez, discovered a “building or grooming” relationship between the 11-year old and the 42-year old. Two weeks ago, “the father was concerned because he saw them in a kissing situation, and he immediately thought that’ s inappropriate, and he was right, and he fired him, and he actually drove him to Atlanta,” Simmons said.

Thursday morning, the father found a screen cut on their Walnut Hill home, and the girl was missing. She left a note behind indicating that she would be with Brijido-Ortez.

An Amber Alert was issued, fearing the 11-year-old was in danger.

Later in the day, the 11-year-old was safely located in Foley, Alabama, in a vehicle stolen from a Walnut Hill farm. Authorities do not believe that Ortiz was physically present for her disappearance.

“Manriquez-Ortiz is charged with having a wildly inappropriate and illegal relationship with the 11-year-old,” the ECSO said Friday.

When the relationship was first discovered, Fernandez “beat up” Manriquez-Ortiz, ECSO has now revealed.

“When we first found that he was trying to mess with her, we fired him,” Fernandez told NorthEscambia.com. “He don’t have no way to go nowhere. Our boss, he take him to Atlanta to a cousin’s place.”

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI are continuing their investigation.

“We were very concerned about her well-being yesterday morning. We are glad she is safe. This suspect is a danger to the victim and a danger to the community. He will return and face judgment for his pathetic and criminal actions,” Simmons said.

Comments

5 Responses to “Man Being Charged With Sexual Assault In Case Of Missing 11-Year Old Walnut Hill Girl”

  1. Kane on July 30th, 2022 3:21 am

    @ Susie Dear undocumented workers have been coming to this country since we were a country it didn’t start with mojo jo jo biden and it certainly won’t magically stop with him.

  2. Susie on July 29th, 2022 9:17 pm

    @Puddin It was Biden that let him in to begin with. It won’t help to tell him what you just said. On the brighter side, our Sheriff’s Office will know exactly how to handle it so Justice will be done and these results will go on the Uniform Crime Reports for all to see the statistics.

  3. Puddin on July 29th, 2022 5:32 pm

    Notice is says he’s Undocumented? That means he’s an illegal alien. He is a criminal. He shouldn’t have been hired in the 1st place. The boss should have turned him in to the police to be charged and deported.

    Glad the child was found alive.

  4. Michael on July 29th, 2022 3:18 pm

    If I was here Father, I would not stopped at just “beating him up”

  5. tg on July 29th, 2022 3:12 pm

    And now for the rest of the story.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News