Registered sex offender from SW MI charged with raping WA teen
PAW PAW, Mich. (WOOD) — A registered sex offender was charged with several felonies, including rape, after authorities say he groomed a teen girl online for months, drove to Washington state to get her and brought her back to his home near South Haven.
At a news conference before the suspect’s Friday arraignment, the girl’s mother thanked investigators for their hard work to find her daughter.
“I get to bring my daughter home,” she said. “The past three weeks have been nothing short of a nightmare and one I hope no other parents have to experience.”
Keith Freerksen, 30, appeared in a South Haven courtroom via video to be arraigned on nine criminal counts, including multiple counts of human trafficking of a minor for commercial sexual activity and criminal sexual conduct.
“This individual is a convicted sex offender who groomed a 14-year-old girl online for a significant period of time. He then took it upon himself to travel across the country, take this 14-year-old from her home state of Washington, and kept her here in Van Buren County for roughly three weeks. We believe that he is an extreme risk to the public,” Assistant Prosecutor Rachel Keeley told the judge.
Judge Arthur Clarke agreed, also saying he believes Freerksen is a flight risk and noting there is “great evidence towards his guilt.” He denied bond.
That means Freerksen will stay behind bars while his case makes its way through the judicial system. He’s expected back in court on Feb. 14 and Feb. 22. He said his family was getting him an attorney.
Police: Missing girl from Washington found at Michigan man’s home
He is also expected to face new charges in Washington, the Van Buren County sheriff said.
Freerksen was previously convicted of child porn charges in the Orlando, Florida, area in 2017, the Michigan Sex Offender Registry shows.
DETECTIVE: GIRL GROOMED FOR MONTHS
The 14-year-old girl, whose name News 8 is not using because she is a juvenile and may be the victim of a crime, was reported missing Jan. 6 from Mount Vernon, which is north of Seattle. Initially considered a runaway, police soon realized that she’d been speaking with a strange man online for “several months.”
“(The man) had provided her with money and other gifts, clearly grooming this young lady and gaining this naive girl’s confidence,” Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office Detective Lt. David Walker told Judge Clarke during a probable cause hearing on Thursday.
Walker said Freerksen clearly knew the girl was a teenager: She told him her age.
“They built up a relationship. He was able to talk her into him picking her up in the state of Washington,” Walker said. “The missing girl never told any family or friends that this was her plan.”
Investigators were able to use license plate readers in various states and cellphone records to track his car from South Haven to Mount Vernon, where he stayed for about 13 hours before returning to Michigan, Walker said.
THE ARREST
Mount Vernon police say they learned the teen may have used a ride-sharing service and tracked down who ordered the car. That pointed them to Freerksen.
The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office says detectives got a call Wednesday from the FBI’s Seattle office, looking for information about Freerksen and filling sheriff’s detectives in on the case. It was enough to get a search warrant, Sheriff Dan Abbott said Friday.
Abbott said his officers checked out Freerksen’s home on Blue Star Memorial Highway in South Haven Township.
“The suspected vehicle used to transport the victim from Washington to here was observed on the property,” Abbott said.
Abbott explained there are three homes on the property. He said his detectives confirmed Freerksen was in one of them, so they moved in to get him Wednesday evening.
“The suspect immediately said she (the teen) was there to the detectives that was talking to him,” Abbott said. “However, once they read (the) Miranda (rights), he lawyered up right away and wouldn’t speak anymore.”
Other family members on the property pointed detectives to where the girl was.
“Once the detectives found out her location, they went and entered the structure and located the victim immediately,” Abbott said.
At the probable cause hearing, detectives confirmed she was in Freerksen’s home.
“(The teen) did disclose to investigators that he provided her housing, a cellphone, clothing, food and marijuana on multiple occasions, this while she was at his home,” Walker said.
Walker went on to say that the teen told investigators about “multiple sexual encounters” with Freerksen while she was at his home and that while she was still in Washington, she sent him nude photos.
After she was found, the teen’s parents were soon on a plane to Michigan. They were expected to return to Washington Friday night.
“By God’s grace, this victim was able to be united with her family, alive, and able to recover from what she went through over these past three weeks. Not every victim can say that, nor walk away from something like this alive,” Abbott said at the Friday news conference, reading from prepared remarks.
He added that while there are no other known victims, more may come forward now that the case is public.
SHERIFF: ‘SOMETHING’S GOT TO BE DONE’
“I’ve seen it over and over that nothing good comes out of a child opening up an app and talking to a total stranger on a computer,” Abbott said.
He would not name the specific social media platform involved in the case, but said it has since been taken down.
“We’ve all heard the conversation for years about something’s got to be done, but yet nothing’s getting done,” Abbott said.
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He said he hopes the case will serve as a catalyst to hold app and tech companies accountable for keeping kids safe and for new federal legislation to better control convicted sex offenders’ online activity.
“There are safeguards on millions of products in this world, but yet websites are still readily available to our children at the touch of their fingertips,” Abbott said. “I ask you why? Why is there a website like the one used in this case, where it’s OK for a kid to get on this website and talk to a total stranger? I would love to have the company defend why that’s a good idea.”
“This is a call to action,” the teen’s mother said. “This predator was able to use social media platforms to reach my child from across the country. He was able to use these platforms to groom my child over an extended period of time. How many more children have to be victimized before these social media platforms are held to a higher standard? How many more families have to suffer the way mine has?”
The sheriff urged parents to watch what their kids are doing online.
“If they get mad at you, it is what it is,” he said. “I think most parents would say they would rather have a mad child than a child who has to go through this or winds up missing and never recovered.”
He said to watch for signs that something may be wrong, like sudden behavior changes. He said his department’s school resources officers are trained to watch for warning signs, too.
—News 8’s David Horak contributed to this report.
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