ST. PETERSBURG — The last of seven people wanted in connection with a human trafficking case involving two teenage boys surrendered to authorities on Tuesday, according to St. Petersburg police.
Curtis Gruwell, 34, turned himself in to the Pinellas County jail at 10:50 a.m., records show. He faces charges of conspiracy to commit human trafficking and interference with custody. He is being held in lieu of $550,000 bail.
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Police revealed the results of an eight-month investigation at a Monday news conference: In May, police discovered that a 16-year-old boy from Marion County was being repeatedly sexually abused for nearly a year by four men who imprisoned him inside a squalid home at the Silver Lake Mobile Home Community.
The teen was rescued when officers went looking for a different missing boy, a 17-year-old from Louisiana.
The other six arrested in the case are: Mark Earl Dennis, 52 and Andrew Barry Dennis, 45, a married couple arrested in Pinellas County; Michael Ray Blasdel, 36, and J.R. Gauthier, 29, who were also arrested in Pinellas. Those four faces charges of sexual battery of a child under the age of 16. All the defendants faces charges of conspiracy to commit human trafficking and interference with custody. All have been jailed in lieu of six-figure bail amounts.
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