Registered sex offender sentenced after taking 14-year-old from Washington to Michigan
SEATTLE, Wash. (CBS DETROIT) — A South Haven man was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for traveling to sexually abuse a minor who lived in Washington, and taking the 14-year-old to his home in Michigan.
"What happened in this case is every parent's nightmare – a predator comes into the home via social media and computer screens and manipulates your child to run away," U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said in a press release about the case. Gorman is the district attorney for the Western District of Michigan in Seattle.
During the sentencing hearing for Keith Daniel Freerksen, age 31, of South Haven, U.S. District Judge Tana Lin said the family had searched for a month for the teen. At one point, the judge explained, the family contacted every morgue in Washington State to see if any unclaimed bodies matched the description of the teen.
Freerksen was arrested Jan. 31 in South Haven Township following an investigation that stretched from Mount Vernon County in Washington to Van Buren County in Michigan, according to a press release on the case.
The victim, then age 14, went missing Jan. 5, 2024, and a local police detective sought help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Seattle office. An agent who specializes in violent crimes against children and human trafficking investigations in Washington state was assigned.
Analyzing Uber rides that had been purchased for the victim by an unknown person, officers were able to identify a possible suspect as Freerksen, who, according to the district attorney's office, is a registered sex offender in Michigan. With that information, they found a vehicle registered to Freerksen and could trace his movement in multiple states through license plate readers.
"The readers also captured Freerksen's return trip through Idaho and Illinois in the days after the teen went missing," the press release said.
Police in South Haven Township then served a search warrant at the request of the FBI, at which time the victim was found and officers arrested Freerksen.
After arrest, he was transported to Washington state and placed in federal custody.
In asking for the 20-year sentence, Assistant United States Attorney Cecelia Gregson wrote to the court, "It is very alarming that neither of Freerksen's family members intervened when he returned home with the then fourteen-year-old victim in tow."
Contacts with the victim had been ongoing for months before she was taken, according to reports.
The federal sentence will run concurrent with a 15-to 70-year state of Michigan sentence, he will serve his time in the federal prison system.
