Defrocked Priest Was ‘Exercising Control’ Over Alabama Teen When Her Parents Confronted Them in Italy, Sheriff Says (Exclusive)

Two weeks after an 18-year-old Alabama girl left her dreams behind for Rome with a 30-year-old priest, her parents traveled abroad and tracked her down in the hopes of bringing her back to her senses — and back home.

The teen’s parents found her living with Alex Crow, a 30-year-old Catholic priest who was immediately defrocked when the Archdiocese of Mobile learned the pair fled the country together after receiving a letter from Crow on July 24.

Her parents begged and pleaded for the teen to return to their home in Mobile, but she refused, Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch tells The Messenger.

They even called Burch, who spoke to her without any luck. But, Burch says, it's clear that Crow was influencing the young woman.

“He's exercising some form of control over her because when her parents were there, he wouldn't let her talk to them outside of his presence,” Burch told The Messenger. “She was very adamant that she didn't want to come home. But again, Crow was sitting right there beside her the whole time.”

The teen, whose identity has not been publicly released because authorities believe she was a minor when the relationship began, graduated from McGill-Toolen Catholic High School this past spring.

Crow was the parochial vicar at Corpus Christi Parish and often volunteered at the school and spoke with students at the school, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

Before entering the church, Crow told The Catholic Week he was "as far away from the church as one could be," according to the National Catholic Reporter.

He often preached about temptation, demonology and exorcisms.

“He would do lectures on it at the school and youth groups,” Burch said. “It just kind of seems to be a fascination of his.”

About a year ago, the Archdiocese came to believe Crow had developed an inappropriate relationship with a different student, Burch said.

“A complaint was made to the Archdiocese and he was ordered to stay away from that girl,” Burch said. “And so then he, again, focused his attention on the one that he's with now.”

Two days after Crow left the country, the Archdiocese of Mobile released a statement and announced Crow exhibited behavior "totally unbecoming of a priest."

According to the statement, the church told Crow that "he may no longer exercise ministry as a priest, nor to tell people he is a priest, nor to dress as a priest."

The teen has been described as a perfect student who never got into any trouble. But it’s clear there was a growing relationship between the two, which is evident in a love letter Crow wrote to the girl where he proclaimed they were married.

“Now, we are in love and we are married!” he wrote to the girl in a Valentine's letter obtained by The Messenger. “I’ve never been in love before (and I’ve never been married, obviously!)”

(The letter is undated, but the teen would have been 17 at the time if it was written around Valentine's Day.)

Law enforcement searched for a marriage certificate, but have been unable to find anything.

For now, investigators have sent subpoenas for text messages and phone calls from their phones, which they left behind in an effort to suss out the exact nature of Crow's relationship with the teen before they fled the country.

Crow could be charged with violating an Alabama law that makes it a crime for school employees or volunteers to engage in sexual contact with a student under the age of 19, Burch said.

Investigators continue interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence while the girl’s parents hope for her to return home.

“All we really want to do is get justice and get her home,” Burch said. “Our main focus is to get her back to her family.”