March 28, 2024 - LOS ANGELES – A Long Beach man has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint alleging he traveled with a 14-year-old runaway from Arizona – whom he met in a Reddit internet forum – across state lines to his apartment, where he engaged in criminal sexual activity with her, the Justice Department announced today.

Trevon Nathaniel Langstaff, 32, is charged with transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Langstaff was arrested at his residence early Wednesday morning. He is scheduled to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, law enforcement officials on Tuesday received a report of a missing 14-year-old girl who ran away from a residence in Arizona. Early Tuesday morning, the victim’s family discovered she was missing.

The victim’s family searched for the girl in the neighborhood and reached out to her friends for information about the victim’s whereabouts and learned that the victim – one week earlier – said that she was planning to run away from home. The victim also told a friend that she had met a man who harbored runaways and who currently had two other teenagers staying with him, and that he would give her a cellphone and a room in which to stay, the affidavit alleges.

The victim and Langstaff allegedly met on a Reddit internet forum about runaways. A phone record search revealed numerous contacts between the victim and Langstaff, according to the affidavit.

Early Wednesday morning, law enforcement officials visited Langstaff’s Long Beach apartment to locate and rescue the victim. The victim was found hidden in a closet at Langstaff’s apartment, the affidavit alleges.

The victim said Langstaff and she engaged in sexual contact after their arrival at his apartment.

A criminal complaint is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, Langstaff would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The FBI and the Long Beach Police Department are investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Damaris Diaz of the Violent and Organized Crime Section is prosecuting this case.
Source: DOJ Release