St. GABRIEL — St. Gabriel Police say they tracked down a missing teenager after more than two years and are still working to understand what happened during that time.

Police say the teenager, now 17, told officers she had been with a 39-year-old man identified as Lionel Moore since 2024.

When officers found him, Moore was urinating in the middle of the street.

St. Gabriel Police Chief Kevin Ambeau said investigators quickly learned that he had warrants in East Baton Rouge for failing to register as a sex offender.

The state sex offender portal shows Moore was convicted in 2005 for indecent behavior with juveniles and released from custody in September 2008. The portal also shows Moore failed to renew as a sex offender multiple times in East Baton Rouge Parish and has active warrants out for his arrest.

Neighbors who spoke to WBRZ off camera said they didn't know Moore well and that he kept to himself.

Police are trying to fill in the gaps as to what the teenager went through during that time, including whether she appeared on any sex trafficking sites.

Father Jeffery Bayhi, the founder of Metanoia Manor, a facility for victims of human trafficking, said, "A fifteen-year-old cannot make that consent, and so any child under the age of 18 who is in that activity, whether freely or not, it's illegal."

Bayhi also said the definition of trafficking involves force, fear, fraud or coercion, and that the teenager's road to recovery will be difficult.

Police told WBRZ on Tuesday that they are trying to determine whether this was trafficking. St. Gabriel Police also said new charges would be added for Moore, but have not said what those additional charges are.