A teenager who had been missing for months after she vanished without a trace from her hometown in Missouri was discovered hiding behind the door of a cluttered closet nearly 700 miles away.
The terrified 16-year-old girl was found alive inside the home of a convicted sex offender who police say snatched her away, isolated her from the world, and forced her into a life of captivity.
The girl’s nightmare only ended after she managed to send a desperate Instagram message to a friend and helped lead investigators straight to the Colorado house where she was being held.
The accused predator is 44-year-old Maximilian Bondrescu, a 320-pound registered sex offender with a prior conviction for communication with a minor for immoral purposes.
The teen had essentially disappeared with her phone silent, her social media dark while her worried family had no clue as to her whereabouts.
Bondrescu now faces a laundry list of charges including second-degree kidnapping, sexual assault on a child, false imprisonment, child abuse, and failure to properly register as a sex offender.
He remains locked in the Larimer County Jail on a $500,000 cash bond.
For months, there had been no sign of the teen, whose father first reported her missing on December 6, 2024, after receiving a call from her school that she never showed up for class.
Maximilian Bondrescu, a 320-pound registered sex offender with prior convictions has been charged with kidnapping and sexual assault after he allegedly held a 16-year-old for months
The 800 block of Warren Landing in Fort Collins, Colorad is where the girl was eventually found
Friends told police she had talked about the idea of running away to Colorado. But as the weeks dragged into months with no word, hope began to fade.
Then, on April 15, there was a sudden blip of hope as her Instagram account, dormant since her disappearance, flickered back to life as she sent out a message which saved her life.
That ping led investigators to track the IP address where the account was accessed.
The digital trail pointed to a residence in Fort Collins, Colorado, and directly to Bondrescu.
Given his status on the sex offender registry, police wasted no time.
They obtained a warrant and arrived at his doorstep on April 18. But when they knocked, Bondrescu flatly denied any knowledge of the missing girl.
Officers didn’t believe him and when they searched the house, they found the teenage alive, frightened, and hiding in a closet.
The girl’s account of what happened is harrowing.
Bondrescu allegedly forced the girl to work for his snow removal business, FoCo Sno GO, shoveling snow while masked to hide her identity and age
According to the arrest affidavit, she began communicating with Bondrescu in November 2024 on an app called ‘Boo,’ later shifting their conversations to Snapchat.
The pair plotted her escape. Bondrescu rented a car, drove through the night, and picked her up in Missouri under cover of darkness.
They avoided toll roads, she told police, in what investigators believe was a deliberate attempt to leave no trace.
When they arrived in Colorado, Bondrescu allegedly wrapped the girl in a blanket and carried her inside his home so that no one would spot her.
The girl told police that Bondrescu ordered her to dye her hair and wear a mask and sunglasses on the rare occasion that she might leave the house.
In fact, she was allowed outside only ‘a handful of times’ during the months she was held captive.
Bondrescu allegedly forced the girl to work for his snow removal business, FoCo Sno GO, shoveling snow while masked to hide her identity and age.
She told officers that the man took away her learner’s permit, student ID, and the phone she had brought with her, smashing it so she could not reach anyone for help.
But Bondrescu made one critical mistake.
He gave the girl one of his old phones, apparently unaware that it still had Instagram installed.
It was that device, police say, that allowed her to send the message that would ultimately lead to her rescue.
The girl’s words to investigators revealed the psychological trap she was caught in.
She told police that by January or February, she had pleaded with Bondrescu to let her return home but he told her she couldn’t leave because he couldn’t afford it.
When asked what she thought would happen if she ran, the girl simply replied that she didn’t know anyone in Colorado and had no way out.
The affidavit details how Bondrescu kept her isolated, monitored, and dependent on him.
She told officers that Bondrescu broke the phone she had when she arrived and kept her ID to ensure she was essentially invisible and powerless.
The only hope she had was the forgotten Instagram app on the old phone and the courage to send a message, not knowing if anyone would see it.
According to Colorado’s sex offender registry, Bondrescu’s criminal past wasn’t unknown.
His prior conviction in 2019, for communication with a minor for immoral purposes, should have made him subject to strict monitoring.
But that history did not prevent him from grooming and abducting another child.
Now, alongside charges of kidnapping and sexual assault, Bondrescu is also accused of failing to properly register as a sex offender.
Bondrescu is also charged with child abuse, harboring a minor, obstructing a peace officer, second-degree assault, and false imprisonment after allegedly locking the girl in a room for extended periods and using threats to keep her compliant.
Police are now asking the public, particularly anyone who may have hired Bondrescu’s company, FoCo Sno GO, to come forward.
Investigators believe the girl may have been forced to work in public, wearing a mask in order to keep herself disguised, while the man who held her captive profited from her labor.
Anyone with information about Bondrescu or the snow removal business is urged to contact Fort Collins Police at 970-416-2026.
