Charges: Ohio man picked up 15-year-old in Glenwood, planned to take her back to Ohio

A warrant has been issued for an Ohio man accused of traveling to Minnesota to pick up a minor, having sexual contact and communication with her, and planning to take her out of state without permission.

Court records show 22-year-old Trevor James Beisser, of Zanesville, Ohio, is charged with kidnapping, possession of pornographic work, solicitation of a minor, sexual communication with a minor and distributing sexual material to a child.

Those charges stem from what started as a report of a missing teen on Jan. 26.

Charging documents state the 15-year-old girl was reported missing by her grandmother just before 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 26, with the grandmother adding the girl had been in contact with someone named Trevor and had a history of contact with men online.

A school resource officer then learned from students at an area high school that the teen had been planning for more than a week to run away with a man from Ohio. Students noted that social media showed the teen was in St. Cloud.

St. Cloud police officers used that data and found the girl alone at a McDonald’s, without a phone or money, the documents state.

While she refused to talk about Beisser, a deputy realized he’d passed Beisser’s vehicle, tracked down his phone number, left a message and later got a call back from Beisser.

In talking to the deputy, Beisser admitted that he’d driven from Ohio to Glenwood and was going to take her back to Ohio with him, a criminal complaint states. He claimed the teen’s grandparents gave him permission, which they denied, and noted the teen had packed a bag of belongings she took with her when she snuck out early that morning.

Beisser also allegedly told the deputy that he and the teen stopped in a parking lot on the way to St. Cloud and they had sex but said he fled when a friend told the teen that authorities were looking for her.

Investigators reviewed the Snapchat messages Beisser and the teen exchanged and found several sexual messages with explicit pictures and videos, according to the charging documents. The two also referred to each other as boyfriend and girlfriend.

The teen was placed in the custody of Morrison County Human Services and a nationwide warrant has been issued for Beisser. He faces up to 40 years in prison on the kidnapping charge and up to five years for each of the other charges.

The Pope County Sheriff’s Office says sexual exploitation of minors and online solicitation is “a statewide problem” and anyone who suspects solicitation of a minor should immediately report it.