SEATTLE — The man who admitted to grooming a teen girl from Washington for months before driving her across the country to have sex in his West Michigan home will spend decades behind bars.
A federal judge sentenced Keith Freerksen to 20 years in a U.S. prison for two charges tied to his communication with and transportation of the teen. He will also serve time as part of a plea deal on charges in Michigan.
The 31-year-old, who was already a registered sex offender at the time, confessed to chatting with the teenage girl starting in November 2022 through social media. He sent the then 14-year-old a phone to circumvent her parent's restrictions.
The two had explicit conversations, including fully nude video calls.
Then on January 3, 2024, Freerksen drove from his home near South Haven to the girl's home in Mount Vernon, Washington. The two then drove more than 2,000 miles back to West Michigan on January 8, where Freerksen hid the teen for nearly three weeks before federal and local officers rescued her.
“What happened in this case is every parent’s nightmare – a predator comes into the home via social media and computer screens and manipulates your child to run away,” said Tessa M. Gorman, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington. “This defendant secreted a child away, leaving a distraught family searching desperately for their loved one. When the victim should have been involved in normal teenage activities, the teen was instead manipulated and ensnared by the defendant.”
Prosecutors say the girl's parents spent 30 days searching for their missing daughter, even calling every morgue in the state of Washington, fearing she was dead.
Investigators were able to track the teen's escape from home through a series of Uber rides booked for the girl by another person. That information led them to identify Freerksen as a potential suspect. Detectives tracked his travel across the U.S. through a series of records that matched the time when the teen disappeared.
“I never imagined a predator would travel across the country to steal (my child)," the teen's mother told the court in a victim impact statement.
Prosecutors say the search for the teen could have been over in days, if only people who knew what Freerksen was doing had spoken up.
“It is very alarming that neither of Freerksen’s family members intervened when he returned home with the then fourteen-year-old victim in tow," Assistant United States Attorney Cecelia Gregson said in court. "Freerksen was undeterred by his previous sex offense conviction, corresponding imprisonment, and registration obligation. The rapid recidivism between Freerksen’s release from prison following child pornography offenses and the dedicated months he spent manipulating and enticing (the victim) is evidence he is either unwilling or unable to refrain from sexually abusing minors.”
In November 2024, Freerksen struck a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to counts of travel with intent to engage in a sexual act with a minor & enticement of a minor. In exchange the U.S. Attorney's Office agreed to not pursue charges connected to evidence they gathered during the investigation.
After serving his 20 year federal prison sentence, Freerksen will spend 20 more years on supervised released. He must also register again as a sex offender and pay restitution costs. How much he will have to pay is scheduled to be set in May.
Alongside the federal sentencing, Freerksen was also sentenced on Wednesday for state-level charges in Michigan. The 31-year-old pleaded guilty to 3 charges: 1st degree criminal sexual conduct, 3rd degree criminal sexual conduct, and accosting a child for immoral purposed. Prosecutors dropped the remaining six charges in exchange.
He'll serve 15 to 70 years for those crimes, with credit for more than a year served in custody while the legal cases played out. Freerksen's time in federal prison will also count towards his state sentence.
A decision on whether he'll be released after 20 years or continue to spend time behind bars will be made by state officials in two decades.
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