UPDATE: Nathan Larson died in federal custody while awaiting trial in 2022. Read more.
FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. — A 12-year-old California girl has been rescued after authorities said she was abducted by a Virginia man, an admitted pedophile who went to prison for more than a year for threatening to kill either President George W. Bush or President Obama.
Nathan Larson, 40, of Catlett, Va., is facing charges of kidnapping, child abduction, solicting child pornography from a minor and meeting a child for the intention of sex, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims told a news conference Saturday. The girl wasn’t physically harmed.
“This particular case is extremely disturbing,” Mims said. The sheriff outlined cooperative measures taken by various law enforcement agencies, which likely saved the girl’s life, according to reports.
Nevertheless, she cautioned that other young girls may have been preyed upon by Larson. “We believe that there are other victims out there,” she said.
Larson trolled the girl online and then flew from his home in Virginia to Fresno in order to abduct her, authorities told Fox News.
Nathan Larson put out this photo of himself when he was running for Congress in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District in 2018. (Nathan Larson for Congress)
Authorities got involved Monday when the girl’s parents reported her missing.
Detectives quickly developed information that Larson boarded a plane with the girl in Fresno, headed to Washington, Mims said.
The flight had a layover in Denver and that is where police arrested Larson and rescued the girl, reuniting her with her family, according to the sheriff.
Mugshot, left, for Nathan Larson, 40, and photo from 2017. (Fresno County Sheriff’s Office )
Online records show that Larson was jailed in Denver on an out-of-state fugitive warrant charging him with harboring a minor, a misdemeanor. He awaits extradition to Fresno where he is facing the more serious crimes, Fox reported.
Mims said Larson met the girl online in October. Yet it was the grooming process that occurred over the next two months that led to the current crimes.
After flying to Fresno, Larson took a ride-share to the girl’s house, persuaded her to sneak away at 2 a.m. Monday and go with him to the airport, the sheriff said.
At the airport, Larson had the girl don a long-haired wig to make her look older and to feign having a disability that rendered her unable to speak.
Nathan generated national headlines in 2018 when he announced he was running as an independent candidate in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District.
“Nathan Larson is a pedophile and a white supremacist. And he’s running for Congress,” said a headline in USA Today at the time.
The paper reported that in a hate-filled stream of consciousness “campaign manifesto,” Larson described himself as a fan of Adolf Hitler and said he wanted to restore “benevolent white supremacy,” rebuild the patriarchy, eliminate child labor laws and legalize early marriage. He has also advocated for the legalization of incest and child pornography.
The run for Congress was short-lived as he dropped out after three months.
Larson served time in prison after pleading guilty to sending the Secret Service a letter in December 2008 from Boulder, Colo., where he was living at the time, according to Fox.
“I am writing to inform you that in the near future, I will kill the president of the United States of America,” his letter said.
He confessed to the crime in 2009 and his prison sentence lasted 16 months. Local media reported that upon his release he moved from Boulder to his parents’ house in Virginia’s Fauquier County.
