FRESNO, California (AP) – A self-proclaimed pedophilia advocate who was once a candidate for political office in Virginia has been arrested by authorities who said they flown him across the country earlier this week with a 12-year-old girl he had persuaded to run away from her California home.
Nathan Larson, 40, made the girl wear a long-haired wig to make her look older and told her to pretend she was stupid during their trip, Margaret Mims, Fresno County sheriff, announced Saturday..
The investigation began Monday morning when the girl’s family reported her missing from her bedroom in Fresno, California.
Mims said that detectives found out that Larson, a resident of Catlett, Virginia, had previously met the girl through social media, flew to California and persuaded her to sneak out of her house around 2 a.m. Monday. They took a shared car to the Fresno airport, where they boarded a plane bound for Washington DC, she added.
Larson was taken into custody and the girl was rescued by a Denver police officer who stopped the couple during their stopover in Colorado, Mims said. The girl was not injured and was later reunited with her family.
Mims said that while the girl was not physically injured, detectives have evidence of inappropriate touching at the airport.
She said the steps Larson had taken to care for the girl were of a “sophisticated nature” and asked anyone who had had inappropriate contact with Larson to contact the police. She also urged parents to always monitor their children’s internet activity and who they communicate with online.
Federal agents searched Larson’s home and found that in the past two months since meeting her online in October, Larson had persuaded the girl to send him pornographic images of herself, Mims said. During the search, Larson’s 69-year-old father, Arthur Larson, assaulted a federal agent and was arrested, she said.
Accused of assault and destruction, the father was later released from prison after posting a bond.
Mims said detectives also discovered the son’s “deeply troubling background”.
“He’s a white supremacist and a well-known pedophilia advocate,” she said of the younger Larson. “This is a man who runs a website that encourages the rape of children and the sharing of nude photos and videos of raped children.”
Nathan Larson ran and lost a campaign in 2017 to join the Virginia House of Delegates, which represents the 31st House District encompassing Prince William and Fauquier counties in northern Virginia. Running as an independent, his platform included advocating for fathers to marry their daughters, legalizing child pornography, and suppressing women’s rights.
In 2009, while living in Boulder, Colorado, he was sentenced to 16 months in prison after being found guilty of sending an email to the Secret Service that he intended to kill the president “in the near future.” . It is unclear whether Larson was referring to then President George W. Bush or then President Barack Obama.
He served 14 months.
Larson was held in the Denver County Jail and charged with housing a minor. However, Fresno County authorities will request an extradition request from Fresno, where he will be charged with kidnapping, child abduction, requests for child pornography from a minor, and meeting a child with intent to have sex.
It was not immediately known whether he has a lawyer.