Runaway Returned Home, 29-Year-Old Man Arrested

Edward Bryan Proveaux

A 16-year-old Winnsboro girl, missing from her home since Aug. 19, was located in Orangeburg County last week at the home of a man Fairfield County Sheriff’s investigators said she met over the Internet.

Lauren Grace Dixon left her home on Newberry Road in the late night hours, investigators said, leaving behind a note that said she was running away. Early evidence collected in the search for Dixon indicated that a man named Brian, whom she had met over the Internet, had convinced her to leave her home and that the two of them were bound for Lexington, N.C. The Sheriff’s Office said they were later able to cull through additional clues, including statements from Dixon’s friends, which led them to the town of Branchville in Orangeburg County, where Dixon was found Aug. 22 at a home on Carpenter Street.

With the assistance of the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, Dixon was returned home and 29-year-old Edward Bryan Proveaux was arrested and transported to the Fairfield County Detention Center, where he is awaiting a bond hearing.

Proveaux has so far been charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the Sheriff’s Office said. Additional charges were pending at press time.

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