News

Grants Pass runaway teen found; Calif. man arrested

Published January 20, 2017 1:16 pm

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) – A runaway teen has been found and the Northern California man she was with has been arrested on sex crime charges in southern Oregon.

The Mail Tribune reports (https://is.gd/CQV896 ) that an Oregon State Police trooper was assisting disabled motorists near Ashland on Wednesday when he identified one of the motorists as a 13-year-old Grants Pass girl who had been reported missing.

Upon questioning, Francis Marcel Ward, the 21-year-old Redding man who was with the girl, admitted to police he knew the girl was only 13 when he engaged in sexual acts with her. Police say the pair met on an adult dating website.

The man faces four felony counts of sexual abuse and one count of unlawful sexual penetration.

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