How a Fresno girl was kidnapped by a white supremacist ‘pedophilia advocate,’ police say
A 40-year-old “white supremacist” and “well-known advocate for pedophilia” faces charges in the abduction of a 12-year-old Fresno County girl, law enforcement officials said Saturday.
The suspect was identified as Nathan Daniel Larson of Catlett, Virginia, who unsuccessfully ran for public office in 2017. In 2008, Larson threatened to kill then-President George W. Bush and was sentenced to federal prison.
In the Fresno County case, Larson is facing five felony counts including kidnapping, child abduction, soliciting child pornography from a minor and meeting a child with the intention of sex, according to law enforcement.
If convicted, he faces life in state prison, with the possibility of parole, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said during a Saturday morning news conference. Federal charges are still being considered.
The girl was reunited with her family Monday night, according to Mims.
“This particular case is extremely disturbing, very far reaching across our nation,” she told reporters during the news conference.
Larson is jailed in Denver, where he also faces a misdemeanor for harboring a minor, Mims said. He is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 24. During that hearing, an extradition request will be made to bring him to the Fresno County jail. The extradition date, if approved, will not be made public for safety purposes.
On Monday morning, the Fresno County Sheriff’s and Fresno Police departments received a report about the missing girl, setting off an investigation that reached to Colorado, Virginia and Washington, D.C. and involved several law-enforcement agencies.
“Detectives believe he has victimized other children in the past that may have gone unreported to law enforcement,” Mims said.
Early on in the investigation, detectives learned the girl “may have been coerced into running away with an older man,” whom the victim had met through social media in mid-October, Mims said. Detectives also learned the girl was possibly headed to Fresno Yosemite International Airport to board a flight to Virginia to be with the suspect.
The investigation was turned over to the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Mims said.
Detectives received assistance from airport police and Homeland Security Investigations agents, who revealed Larson was seen with the girl at the Fresno airport and that they had boarded a flight for Washington, D.C.
The flight had a layover in Denver, where law-enforcement officials said they were able to arrest Larson and rescue the girl.
Detectives learned more details of how the abduction in Fresno took place after Larson was taken into custody, Mim said.
“Larson flew to Fresno from Virginia and then traveled to the girl’s home,” she said. “He persuaded her to sneak out of her house at around 2 a.m.”
Larson then used a ride-share company to travel to the airport with the victim.
“Larson made her wear a long-hair wig to alter her appearance and make her look older,” Mims said, adding that he also instructed the victim to act as if she was “disabled and unable to speak.”
Two months prior to meeting the girl in Fresno, Larson manipulated and groomed the girl to get her to send him pornographic images of herself, Mims said.
On Thursday, while law enforcement officials seized electronic devices from Larson’s home in Virginia, his 69-year-old father allegedly assaulted an HSI agent. The father was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery and released after posting bond.
Detectives were then able to “uncover” Larson “has a deeply disturbing background.”
“He’s a white supremacist and a well-known advocate for pedophilia,” Mims said. “This is a man who runs a website which encourages the raping of children, and sharing of naked photos and videos of children being raped.”
Law-enforcement officials are not identifying the website at this point in their investigation.
Detectives also learned that Larson, in 2017, ran for political office as an independent in the race for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates to represent District 31, Mims said. He lost the race.
Changing laws to allow “sex with minors,” Mims said, was part of his platform.
In December 2008, when Larson lived in Boulder, Colorado, he sent an email to the U.S. Secret Service, threatening to kill the U.S. president. At the time, George W. Bush was the outgoing president and Barack Obama was president-elect.
He was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison the following year and served 14 months, Mims said.
Mims urged parents to keep a close eye on their children’s use of social media and the Internet.
“Teach children to be weary of the person on the other end of that chat line,” she said. “Many times people are not who they say there are. Believe me, they can be very, very charming.”
Because of collaboration and quick action among the various law-enforcement agencies, the girl was reunited with her family within hours, Mims said.
She wasn’t physically harmed, although there was some activity between the suspect and the victim that was “inappropriate,” which will help with the local charges.
“We have a family who is going to be celebrating the holidays and they won’t have an empty chair,” she said. “They got their little girl back with them.”
Drew Bessinger, chief of the Fresno Yosemite International Airport Police, said his agency was able to provide video footage of the suspect with the girl at the airport to other law enforcement agencies as part of the investigation.
“We were very proud that we were able to play a role in this,” he said.
Jeff Branningan, with HSI in the Central Valley, said this case is a “true example” of the importance of local and federal cooperation and matters of public safety.
This story was originally published December 19, 2020 at 12:42 PM with the headline "How a Fresno girl was kidnapped by a white supremacist ‘pedophilia advocate,’ police say."
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