The Daily Populous Monday April 8th, 2024 evening edition
Authored by sacbee.com and submitted by Breab1

California Missing 14-year-old found state away in closet of man she met on Reddit, feds say

A 32-year-old man was arrested after being accused of engaging in sexual acts with a 14-year-old he met on Reddit, federal officials said. Getty Images/iStock photo

A California man was arrested after being accused of performing sex acts with a 14-year-old he met on Reddit, federal officials said.

The teen’s family reported her missing in Arizona and, after reaching out to her friends, learned that she was planning to run away, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

The girl had told her friend that she’d met a man, later identified as 32-year-old Trevon Nathaniel Langstaff, on a Reddit page about runaways, prosecutors said.

There was no attorney information listed for Langstaff in court records as of March 28.

The girl said Langstaff “harbored runaways” and “currently had two other teenagers staying with him,” officials said.

The girl, found in a closet in Langstaff’s Long Beach apartment, was rescued, prosecutors said.

She told officials the two engaged in sexual acts when they got to Langstaff’s apartment, officials said.

Langstaff was arrested and charged with transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, officials said.

If Langstaff is convicted, he’ll face a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison, officials said.

Long Beach is about a 25-mile drive south of downtown Los Angeles.

If you have experienced sexual assault and need someone to talk to, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline for support at 1-800-656-4673 or visit the hotline's online chatroom.

sadpanada on April 7th, 2024 at 09:05 UTC »

I hope more teens see this story, shit is dangerous out there. I know most online/social media is a bit of a cesspool, but Reddit seems to have a disproportionate amount of creeps. It doesn’t help there are subs specifically for teenagers where these pervs go to lurk.

tunachilimac on April 7th, 2024 at 07:15 UTC »

On a Reddit page about runaways? Seems a bad idea to not ban a subreddit about helping kids run away that’s asking for shit like this to happen.

Edit: wtf I found the subreddit or one of them it’s just posts of teens looking for places to stay or help running away then men replying offering to “help”. There’s one 2 hours old from a 15 year old girl and she got an immediate offer to stay with “an older daddy.” That shit needs to get reported to the news. Hopefully the FBI is checking more posts there than just the one from this article.

nevadaho on April 7th, 2024 at 06:21 UTC »

Hey people of Reddit! Be better than this guy!