Former Congressional Candidate Arrested At Airport With Kidnapped 12-Year-Old Girl

Denver, CO – A former Virginia congressional candidate who has advocated for pedophilia and white supremacy was arrested in Denver International Airport on Saturday as he was attempting to take a 12-year-old girl he kidnapped in California across the country.

The kidnapping occurred on Dec. 14 in Fresno County, California, The Washington Post reported.

Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said the girl’s disappearance was reported to police and then investigators learned she might have been coerced into traveling with an adult male she had met in October on social media, KDVR reported.

Sheriff Mims said investigators believed 40-year-old Nathan Daniel Larson of Catlett, Virginia had traveled to California to meet the 12-year-old girl.

She said Larson convinced the girl to take a ride-share from her home at 2 a.m. so they could catch a flight, KDVR reported.

“Larson made her wear a long hair wig to alter her appearance,” the sheriff said. “He also told her to act as though she was disabled and unable to speak to ensure she would not converse with anyone at the airport while making their way onto the airplane.”

Investigators believed the pair might have flown to the Washington, DC area from Fresno Yosemite International Airport.

But the flight had a layover in Denver, KDVR reported.

That’s when the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force quickly took over the investigation.

“Detectives contacted law enforcement authorities [in Denver] and asked that they check the airport for Larson and the child,” the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “A Denver Police officer assigned to the local FBI Task Force located Larson and arrested him. Agents rescued the girl, who was uninjured, and made arrangements to have her reunited with her family in Fresno, which she was later on Monday night.”

Authorities in Fauquier County, Virginia searched Larson’s home on Dec. 17 and seized electronic devices, KDVR reported.

“During the investigation, detectives uncovered Nathan Larson has a deeply disturbing background,” the sheriff’s department said. “He is a white supremacist and a well-known advocate for pedophilia. This is a man who runs a website, which encourages the raping of children and sharing of naked photos and video of children being raped.”

“During the past two months, Larson was able to convince the Fresno girl, through manipulation and grooming, to send him pornographic images of herself,” the sheriff’s office said.

Larson was arrested and held in the Denver County Jail on a misdemeanor charge of harboring a child, KDVR reported.

Larson is facing felony charges in Fresno County for kidnapping, child abduction, soliciting child pornography from a minor, and meeting a child for the intention of sex, The Washington Post reported.

“It is obvious that Larson had the ability to be in contact with children across the nation, and the willingness and the means to travel to abduct them,” Sheriff Mims said. “We believe that there are other victims out there.”

Larson ran for Congress in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District as an Independent in 2018, The Washington Post reported.

He has also made several runs at state office and was not unknown to law enforcement prior to the kidnapping, KDVR reported.

Larson was arrested in December of 2008 in Boulder, Colorado for threatening to kill the President of the United States shortly after Barack Obama was elected.

He pleaded guilty in federal court and served 14 months in federal prison and then years of supervised release, KDVR reported.

Sheriff Mims said that latest charges could put the former aspiring politician behind bars for life with the possibility of parole, The Washington Post reported.