San Francisco

Martinez Man Charged in Oregon Girl's Disappearance

The San Francisco Bay Area man accused of bringing a 14-year-old girl he met online back to his home traveled to Oregon with his daughter to pick her up and had met her once before, when the two had a sexual encounter, federal authorities said.

Blake Robert Johnston, 41, of Martinez, appeared in court on Friday, the Contra Costa Times reported. He has been charged in U.S. District Court in Oakland with traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

According to the criminal complaint, Johnston accompanied by his underage daughter drove to Oregon this week to pick the girl up. The girl had faked her suicide by leaving her roller blades near a bridge and a note that said life was ``un-liveable,'' Special Agent Lesley Brown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wrote in an affidavit.

He had also traveled to Oregon earlier in the month, and he and the girl had a sexual encounter inside his rental car during her school lunch break, authorities said in the complaint.

Martinez police have said Johnston was found with the girl at his home after the department received information from Salem police, who according to authorities used phone records to link the missing girl to him. She has been reunited with her family.
 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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