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Girl, 10, seen in viral 'abuse' video goes missing

A girl who has allegedly been abducted by her father reportedly sent him cryptic messages about being sexually abused.

Sophie Long, 10, from the US state of Texas, was last seen in Guadalupe, in California, on July 12 and is believed to be with her non-custodial father Michael, 42.

She “may be en route to Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Mexico or Argentina”, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

“Michael Long is possibly driving an off white 2010 Ford Edge SUV or a grey van with blacked out windows, a NRA sticker and a black rack on top. Missing juvenile has a small burn mark on one of her arms,” it said.

Sophie Long, 10, pictured with her dad Michael.
Sophie Long, 10, has allegedly been abducted by her dad Michael. Source: Texas Department of Public Safety

Long created a viral GoFundMe campaign in 2020 and shared videos during a custody battle with his ex-wife Kelly Long over their three children, Fox News reported

His campaign included a harrowing video showing Sophie in apparent distress saying she did not want to visit her mum.

The disturbing 20-minute video in which she pleads not to go has been watched on YouTube more than 440,000 times since August.

Long claimed Sophie was suffering abuse – a claim she has denied.

Letters obtained by Mail Online purportedly written by Sophie show codewords “daisy” and “dandelions” being used for the word danger.

However, court filings obtained by Fox News allege Long coached his children on how to respond to questions and he rarely sent them to school. He also allegedly had his children checked for signs of sexual abuse but doctors found none.

Routzon Law Firm in Keller, Texas, said in a statement it believes the dad’s actions last year “form a textbook example of ‘parental alienation’ – a type of child abuse in which he has consistently used psychological manipulation to turn the children against the other parent”.

Sophie’s mum was awarded full custody of the children, The US Sun reported. She took them to live 320 kilometres from their father.

A spokesperson for Sophie’s mum said Long’s “personal vendetta” against her has “now escalated to dangerous levels”.

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