Baton Rouge man arrested in alleged kidnap of Gonzales-area girl
GONZALES — Ascension Parish sheriff’s deputies arrested a Baton Rouge man in the kidnapping of a 13-year-old Gonzales-area girl after tracking them through the girl’s cellphone and computer records, the Sheriff’s Office reported Friday.
Michael Long, 40, 4530 Sunny Brook Ave., Baton Rouge, was arrested and booked into the Parish Prison in Donaldsonville on Thursday on counts of second-degree kidnapping and contributing to the delinquency of juvenile, deputies said in a news release.
Long admitted to investigators that he picked up the girl and had consensual sex with her, deputies said. He faces additional counts in East Baton Rouge Parish, including likely felony carnal knowledge of juvenile, Sheriff’s Maj. Kevin Hanna said.
Although Long has a criminal history, deputies said, he is not a registered sex offender.
Relatives of the girl originally reported her missing about 2 a.m. Thursday. Deputies said they learned later that she left with an unidentified 40-year-old man in a blue, four-door truck.
By the time deputies had narrowed down their search to Long on Thursday afternoon, a relative had persuaded the girl to give herself up to deputies. She later told investigators Long picked her up and took her to his residence.
A sheriff’s forensic computer examiner gained access to her computer and found out she had been posing as an adult online, visiting adult dating sites as well as entering “members only” sites where she exchanged dialogue with those members, deputies said.
Those sites offered explicit sexual activity as well as dating services, deputies said.
The girl, who was not identified, was being held at the St. James Juvenile Detention Center on Thursday on the juvenile offense of being ungovernable, or a runaway, deputies said.