Girl found in Key Largo man’s dryer. Abuse had been going on for 2 years: cops

A teenage girl was bound and locked in a dryer by a man who had been sexually abusing her for two years, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

On Sunday, deputies got a 911 call from a teenage girl who said she was being held captive.

“Please hurry he took my phone away and I’m using his to call,” the teen told dispatchers, according to Christopher Michael Veit’s arrest affidavit.

Deputies went to the Key Largo home of Veit, 53, and asked him about the girl. He told them he did not know what they were talking about, per the arrest affidavit.

Deputies began to walk inside Veit’s home and found the girl hidden in his clothes dryer. Veit just looked to the ground when asked by deputies why he lied, according to the arrest affidavit.

The teen told deputies that she had been sexually assaulted and needed help. She was taken to Mariners Hospital in Tavernier, where she agreed to have a sexual-assault exam. Deputies called the teen’s mother, who said she did not know her daughter was in Monroe County and did not consent to her daughter being with Veit.

Met on a dating app

The teen had known Veit for two years, having met him through an online dating site called Seeking, she told investigators.

The pair met up at a hotel and had sex, the teen told investigators, with her then telling him her age. Veit would call her back a few days later and told her they would have to keep their relationship a secret, deputies say. Veit paid her $600 and told her he would be her “sugar daddy,” his arrest affidavit reads.

This went on for two years, with Veit constantly abusing her and forcing her to perform sexual acts that she did not want to do, she told deputies. Veit told her to “stop whining” when she told him no, according to his arrest affidavit.

The teen told deputies that Veit would film the sexual abuse on multiple devices.

On Sunday, after already having spent days at Veit’s Key Largo home after he bought her a Brightline train ticket, picking her up from the Miami station in his black Cadillac Escalade, the teen told him she wanted to leave. He accused her of wanting to be with another man, according to the arrest affidavit.

Deputies say that while the teen was laying on the bed, Veit climbed on top of her, placed his knee on her stomach to prevent her from moving, forced her phone out of her hand and grabbed her bag.

He told her she had no way to call for help or get a ride. When she began to cry, he told her to “shut up or I’ll do what I did before,” referring to a time when he got on top of her, slapped her and then smothered her with a pillow.

Afraid he would do that again, the girl told deputies that she obeyed.

When Veit went outside to check on food he had on a grill, she grabbed his phone and called 911. When deputies arrived, Veit told her to hide in the dryer. Scared, she did as he said and he shut the dryer door.

Deputies say they found multiple items that corroborated the teen’s story including two pink dildos, four iPhones, including the teen’s, an iPad, a large amount of spermicide, an emergency contraceptive, bedsheets and two bags belonging to the teen.

Detectives also found several sheets of counterfeit money, prompting the U.S. Secret Service to be notified.

Jail records show Veit is charged with four counts of sexual battery on a victim 16 or 17, one count of kidnapping and one count of interfering with custody of a minor. Veit remains jailed on a $650,000 bond. His attorney information was not immediately available.

This story was originally published June 23, 2026 at 1:22 PM with the headline "Girl found in Key Largo man’s dryer. Abuse had been going on for 2 years: cops."