Ex-security guard admits to molesting Idaho 12-year-old hidden in Tri-Cities home

A former security guard admitted to molesting a 12-year-old runaway he was hiding in his bedroom at his parents’ Kennewick home.

About a year after a neighbor became suspicious and called police, Austin Holbrook, 21, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Benton County Superior Court to two counts of second-degree child molestation.

His faces 2 1/2 years to 3 1/2 years in prison. The prosecutor and the defense attorney plan to ask for a sentence of just over three years.

He also agreed to get sex offender treatment and must register as a sex offender for 15 years. No sentencing hearing date is set.

Holbrook met the Nampa, Idaho, preteen through the Hily dating app, court documents said. The app’s users are supposed to be 18 or older, according to the service’s community rules.

After talking with the girl, he arranged to pick her up. He drove from Kennewick to Idaho in his father’s Dodge Durango in March 2024 and picked her up after she sneaked out of her house, according to court documents.

The girl told police that Holbrook promised to protect her if her mom filed a missing person report.

He took her to Kennewick and made her hide in his room while his mom was home. She could only leave to shower and eat after his mom left.

A neighbor noticed Holbrook’s suspiciously young “girlfriend” and called police, court documents said. Detectives found Holbrook and the girl at the East 16th Avenue home.

A medical exam found she was malnourished and dehydrated.

She told investigators Holbrook also had been contacting her 13- and 14-year-old friends through the same app but he hasn’t been charged with any other crimes.

While the court documents don’t say what his new job was, his LinkedIn profile says his most recent job was in Boardman, Ore., as an unarmed security guard.

He was no longer working there as of November 2023.