ST. LOUIS • A 20-year-old man was charged Saturday in the kidnapping and assault of the 12-year-old girl found by searchers in a vacant St. Louis house earlier this month, police said.

Tyrone Butler Jr., of the 2800 block of Abner Place in St. Louis, faces charges of kidnapping, armed criminal action, assault and sodomy. Butler was arrested Friday, authorities said.

Authorities said bail was set at $500,000.

Police were trying to determine whether the suspect knew the victim, sources said. They live in the same area.

The victim, whose identity is now being withheld because she was the victim of sexual assault, had been beaten and had her throat slit, according to court documents.

Police had issued pictures of the girl and her name after the girl’s mother became concerned that she did not show up at school Jan. 11. The girl left her home in the 5300 block of Labadie Avenue, near Union Boulevard, about 6:10 a.m. that day.

She was supposed to meet a friend and then walk to the bus stop about three blocks away at Maffitt Avenue and Union, but she never showed up at her friend’s house nor at Carr Lane Middle School.