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The girl's mother reported her missing to police about 2:10 a.m. Sunday, according to Escondido police Lt. Craig Carter.

Escondido police officers searched for the girl, interviewed her friends and checked her cellphone records. They learned she might have been with a 24-year-old San Dimas man, Carter said.

"He's very crafty in how he got her to come out and was able to pick her up at her house and take her back to his house," Carter said. "He knew what to say to a vulnerable 12-year-old."

The investigation revealed the girl had met the man on a social networking site, Carter said.

Officers who were following a lead found the girl in a bedroom of a house in the 1000 block of Nightingale Place, near East Lincoln Avenue, Carter said. She was found along with a man who was identified by police as Christopher Bradley Nutt, who had recently moved from San Dimas to Escondido, Carter said.

Nutt had been renting a room in the home from owner Joel Mason since mid-April.

"They came in and they followed me down the hall to his room and we knocked on his door," said Mason. "They were here probably for about three hours."

The girl was reunited with her parents, Carter said.

Nutt was arrested on suspicion of intercourse with a minor, sodomy with a child under 14, lewd acts with a child under 13, oral copulation with a child under 14, possession of child pornography and sexual exploitation of a child, Carter said. He was jailed in lieu of $1.175 million, according to jail records. Nutt is scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday.

Prior to Nutt's arrest, police say he had never been in trouble with the law. Mason said he never suspected a thing.

"You'd never know," said Mason. "He seemed fine… went to work, was clean cut… everything seemed fine."

Carter said Nutt and the girl met on the website Skout.com.

Police are now concerned there could be other victims after they say explicit photos of several young girls were found on Nutt's phone after the arrest.

They asked anyone with information on the case to call them at (760) 839-4758 or their anonymous tip line at (760) 743-8477 or to contact them online at escondido.org/police.