MISSING 13-YEAR OLD FOUND

Teen disappeared Monday, text-messaged pleas for help

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A 13-year-old New Jersey girl missing since Monday was found Thursday in New York City, and told police she had been raped.

Text messages had been sent Monday from the girl's phone to her mother's cell phone pleading for help after the girl vanished on her way to school.

The girl was being evaluated "mentally and physically," said Robert Troy, chief of police of the Jersey City Police Department. Missing since Monday, the girl called her parents Thursday at 1 a.m. and told them she didn't know where she was, but thought she was in Manhattan, her father said.

A New York City cab driver then spoke to the parents and took the girl to the hospital, her father said. New York police said the girl told them she had been raped.

Three men, two 19-year-olds and a 20-year-old, were being questioned by Jersey City police. The girl had met the 20-year-old at New Jersey's Newport Mall and arranged to meet with him Monday, Troy said.

The men acknowledged seeing the girl Monday, but said they left her at 2:30 p.m., and don't know what happened to her after that, police said. They reported to the police station voluntarily for questioning, Troy said.

State police, who assisted Jersey City police in culling evidence from the girl's home computer, said "she was visiting a lot of sites she shouldn't have been visiting," Troy added. Asked earlier whether the girl's alleged abduction may have been a hoax, Troy said, "We really can't be conclusive on what our opinion is at this point."

The text messages sent to the girl's mother's phone said: "Mom help, I can only make one text message ... he's gonna take my phone away," one read. Others said, "Help mom, I'm scared and I don't know where I am ... I know I'm in a house ... someone was following me and I just don't remember what happened."

The girl's mother said she received the last text message about 8 p.m. Monday. In it, the girl wrote that she "was being taken to New York," Troy said. Jersey City police said the New York City police will question the girl because she said that two men in New York had assaulted her. She will then be taken to the juvenile division of the Jersey City police for additional questioning, police said.