Bonney Lake teen found safe by Puyallup police

The Bonney Lake Police Department says 15-year-old Lily Christopherson has been found safe by the Puyallup Police Department, and has been reunited with her family.

The Puyallup Police Department says Lily was found around 3:00 p.m. Sunday at a bus stop in the 2200 block of South Meridian in Puyallup.

A passerby saw Lily at the bus stop and alerted the police, and when police arrived Lily was still there.

Police say Lily was alone and no one else was detained at the time of her recovery.

Court documents lay out the journey this teen took from Federal Way south to Tenino.

The RV is where Lily Christopherson’s friend, Alex T. says they were taken back on May 9, off Military Road in Federal Way. They used DMT, a powerful psychedelic drug related to LSD. But a woman spotted there would not answer any questions about the missing teen.

The 15-year-old’s ordeal began three weeks ago at the Federal Way Transit Center. Court documents show she and Alex met two adults, convicted sex offender Christopher Fitzpatrick and his girlfriend, Maria Ann Counts.

They convinced the teens to go with them, first to the RV, then to a Federal Way apartment less than two miles away where they met two men.

The woman who came to the door declined to answer any questions once she knew we were asking about the missing teen.

This is where Alex says he was asked to leave. The authorities aren’t sure where Lily went after that. But their search took them to a shed at Offut Lake near Tenino, where they found Lily’s “clothing, lingerie and ‘sex clothing,'” but no sign of her.

“For this little community, we are blown away,” said Rob Pogue whose family owns the Offut Lake Fishing Resort.

He says evidence that the teen was here has hit this community hard.

Maria Counts, the second suspect arrested and charged in connection with Lily’s disappearance, is from the Tenino area.

Police told KIRO 7’s Deedee Sun last Thursday that a third suspect, William Kent Pittman, was arrested Wednesday night in connection to Lily’s case.

Counts and Fitzpatrick were charged or accused of acting as an accomplice of: kidnapping in the first degree with sexual motivation, promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor, rape of a child in the third degree (multiple counts), unlawful delivery of a controlled substance to a minor, and possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the second degree.

Both pleaded not guilty to the charges.

 

“There’s nothing more important than protecting our children and there are no crimes more serious than violating children,” said Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist.

Lindquist said the arrests are shining a light on the underworld of sexual exploitation of children.

“The world of sex trafficking is seedy and it’s dangerous,” Lindquist said. “And it’s important we find her.”

According to the court documents, Lily was advertised on a website that was new even to Lindquist: MeetMe.com.

And, he cautions potential “customers” that anyone caught having sex with a child faces at least 10 years in prison. They could be charged even if they don’t know the victim is underage.