A Virginia man is charged with abducting a Milwaukee teenager and holding her captive for four years, NBC Chicago reports.
Milwaukee police announced the arrest of 37-year-old Owen Anderson this week. Anderson allegedly held Joniah Walker captive in a small frame house in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Officials said he r*ped and abused Walker since the day she went missing in 2022.
Walker was 15 when she was last seen on a neighbor’s Ring camera near her mother’s apartment on June 23, 2022.
Walker, now 19, left home wearing her brother’s clothes and an oversized camping backpack. She turned off her cell phone and erased her online profile.
Walker’s mother, Tanesha Howard, said her daughter acted differently that morning. Howard thought someone was “watching” her daughter. She cautioned her other children to keep an eye on her.
Walker had her own debit card and checking account because her mother trusted her. One day, Walker received a large box from Amazon. “I’m like, what is in this box, girl?” Howard said. “And she would never tell me what was in the box.”
The item in the box was likely the oversized backpack Walker was last seen wearing.
“I still have that box upstairs. It was a huge box,” said Howard. “You know, I try to give them their privacy because she never gave me trouble.”
In June, the Milwaukee Police Department announced that Walker was found safe on May 25, 2026. But no other details were released until this week.
On May 23, 2026, Blacksburg police officers responded to a domestic disturbance call in Blacksburg. Police transported the 911 caller (Walker) to a local resource center for domestic abuse victims.
At the time, police were not aware that Walker was the missing teenager from Milwaukee.
Further investigation revealed that Walker was reported missing as a juvenile out of Wisconsin.
Anderson was arrested and charged with abduction and immoral acts with a juvenile, strangulation, child abuse, and preventing a 911 call.
Investigators allege Anderson first “recruited” Walker during lengthy chats online. In June 2022, he arranged to meet her outside a movie theater.
According to the arrest report, Anderson took both a cell phone and a burner phone that he had sent Walker and discarded the devices in a sidewalk trash can.
Anderson remains in custody in Virginia where he is being held without bond.