Kidnapped NC girl, 12, found alive in sex offender’s crashed car, feds say
A kidnapped 12-year-old North Carolina girl who’d fallen prey to her alleged abductor on Snapchat was found alive in the repeat sex offender’s crashed car, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Virgil Larson, the 45-year-old suspect, faces life in prison after the FBI charged him with kidnapping a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor, receipt or possession of child pornography, coercion and enticement of a minor and travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, according to a news release by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Columbus, Ohio.
The FBI said the girl lives in Stokes County, about 30 miles north of Winston Salem.
Her parents reported her missing on April 4, according to an FBI affidavit reviewed by The Charlotte Observer. Also missing were her stuffed dog and her black and white blanket, an FBI agent said in the affidavit.
The next day, the girl was found in the front passenger seat of Larson’s car after he crashed into the median of Highway 33 in Ohio, near Hocking and Athens counties, the affidavit says. That’s about 330 miles northwest of Stokes County, Google Maps shows.
Man threatened girl that others would die, feds say
Deputies at the scene said Larson told them he fell asleep and needed help getting his car from the ditch, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
He told deputies the girl was “just a friend” and that she was 18, according to the news release.
“When the victim could not name her birth year, officers separated her from the defendant and learned she was 12 years old,” the statement said.
“A forensic review of their online messages revealed that the victim was threatened and told others would be killed if the victim did not send a sexually explicit image,” according to the statement.
Larson lives in Bremen, Ohio, and has at least two prior related convictions, the FBI said. He appeared in federal court Friday and was ordered back to jail until a May 8 preliminary hearing in federal court in Columbus, court records show.