After 12 days on the run, a 16-year-old runaway girl is back home, and her 33-year-old boyfriend is behind bars. On the night of Feb 20, the Yucca Valley girl left her home about 9:30 p.m. in a cab and went to a tattoo parlor in the 56300 block of 29 Palms Highway where her boyfriend, Wayne Gauthier, worked. The girl’s parents notified Sheriff’s deputies about 10:30 that night. The girl and Gauthier were spotted numerous times in Yucca Valley during the next 12 days, but were always gone when deputies arrived.
About 2 p.m. Sunday, a friend of the family spotted Gauthier and the girl leaving a fast-food restaurant in Yucca Valley and followed them to an abandoned house in the 57000 block of Antelope Trail. The friend notified the girls’ parents, and the father arrived at the scene before deputies and collected his daughter. When deputies arrived, they detained Wayne Gauthier, who was arrested for investigation of unlawful intercourse with a minor and two other sex-related charges, booked him into the Morongo Basin Jail, with his bail set at $150,000.
