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By Chris Matthews
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A teenage girl who was held captive for more than 500 days helped secure her own rescue after she told another child she was held hostage while they played an online whodunnit video game together.
Kylie Arellano, 17, had been missing from her home in Utah since May 2025 when she struck up a conversation with another young player on video game Among Us last month.
Among Us is an online game in which players try to fix a broken spaceship while secret traitors aim to kill faithful crew members and sabotage the repairs. Crew members must try to deduce who is fighting against them.
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Arellano told the player she was being held against her will at a man's home in Oregon, according to federal court documents.
The other child's mother contacted the FBI, leading to Arellano's rescue on November 1, more than 17 months after she disappeared.
Adam Harmel, 39, from Huntington, Oregon, has been charged with allegedly transporting the teenager across state lines for the purpose of exploiting her.
Prosecutors say Harmel kept Arellano in his basement and repeatedly assaulted her, even forcing her to remove her braces with pliers so she would be less identifiable.
An FBI affidavit stated that Harmel kept a knife beneath his pillow and made the teenager sleep against the wall in his bed so she could not escape.
Arellano was 15 when she disappeared from Garden City, Utah, on May 29, 2025.
Her mother, Stephanie Coleman, said she had exchanged goodnight messages with her daughter shortly before she vanished.
Then her phone went offline, and her jacket and other belongings were found left behind.
Coleman had long suspected her daughter had been lured away by someone she met online, although she had been unable to establish what happened.
Investigators spent the following 521 days pursuing dozens of leads and reported sightings across the United States and overseas.
The search involved the FBI's Salt Lake City Field Office and the Rich County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from other state and federal agencies.
A law enforcement source previously said Arellano was thought to have met the suspect through the social media photo app Snapchat before her disappearance.
The federal complaint says Harmel made contact with Arellano online in May 2025 and told her he had a disability affecting his hips. He allegedly offered her money to travel to Oregon.
Investigators say Harmel drove from Oregon to Perry, Utah, to collect her on May 29.
After she got into his vehicle, he allegedly threw her phone into a river in Logan Canyon before driving her to his home in Huntington.
Once there, Harmel told her she could not leave, according to the complaint. One of his housemates told investigators that he had introduced the teenager as his new girlfriend, although the witness reportedly did not see Arellano until about two months after she arrived.
She was allegedly kept in the basement, where Harmel also slept.
According to investigators, Harmel became increasingly violent toward Arellano, frequently hitting her and preventing her from leaving.
He eventually gave her a phone without cellular data, meaning she could only access the internet through Wi-Fi.
That connection ultimately allowed her to contact someone who could help. In mid-October, Arellano began speaking to another child on Among Us.
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Their conversation moved to another social media application, where Arellano revealed her real identity and explained that she was being held at a man's home in Oregon. She also said she believed police had stopped looking for her.
The other child's mother alerted the FBI, which arranged to monitor a video call with Arellano on November 1.
During the call, the teenager described how she had met Harmel and been taken to Oregon. She also showed investigators the knife he allegedly kept beside his bed and other evidence supporting her account.
Oregon State Police and federal agents rescued her from the property later that day and took her for medical treatment.
Investigators subsequently searched Harmel's home and recovered items that supported parts of Arellano's account, according to the complaint.
Harmel was arrested during a traffic stop in Ontario, Oregon.
The rescue brought an end to a search that had attracted national attention, with Coleman's family and supporters continuing to appeal for information throughout Arellano's disappearance.
FBI Warns About Online Gore Groups
The case has attracted the attention of federal counterterrorism investigators amid concerns about violent online groups targeting children.
The Department of Justice said on November 4 that Arellano had allegedly been targeted on gaming platforms also used by members of nihilistic, violent extremist groups.
Such networks include No Lives Matter and Maniac Murder Cult, groups associated with threats, extreme violence and the encouragement of self-harm.
Some have links to The Com, a wider network of online communities whose members use gaming platforms and social media to recruit and manipulate vulnerable young people.
The FBI's Salt Lake City Field Office is investigating alongside its Joint Terrorism Task Force, with prosecutors from the Justice Department's National Security Division Counterterrorism Section also involved.
As Newsweek previously reported, FBI Director Kash Patel told gore groups that the FBI was coming for them following Arellano's rescue.
He said investigators had been pursuing leads in the case for more than a year and promised to bring those responsible for similar acts to justice.
On November 4, Patel said the criminal complaint described how Arellano had been targeted through gaming platforms and encouraged to harm herself, although a link between Harmel and a specific group has not been made.
Harmel appeared in federal court in Boise, Idaho, on November 4.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and James Debens
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