This report is based on a review of archived online messages, state and federal court filings made in the two active criminal cases involving the suspect, interviews with the parents of the teen, interviews with law enforcement officials who worked on the investigation into the abduction, and an interview with the teen himself while his mother was present. “I need to move forward and figure out what the hell happened,” Heather said. It came after a series of missed opportunities over the span of nearly a month, where, they said, Twitter and law enforcement failed to effectively intervene despite an abundance of information posted online. Heather and Ken McConney, the boy’s parents, told NBC News that they believe the kidnapping was preventable. The boy was allegedly abducted by the man accused of grooming him, driven across state lines, and, prosecutors said, repeatedly sexually assaulted. The boy’s father went to check on him one night and found him missing, his window open, the bedroom freezing.

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