ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri man has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for raping a 15-year-old he met online, a girl held captive in his home for about a month.
State charges of statutory rape are still pending.
A U.S. judge in St. Louis on Thursday sentenced 42-year-old Christopher Schroeder of Marthasville for his plea in July to one count of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Court documents say Schroeder met the girl from the Cleveland suburb of Brooklyn, Ohio, through an internet chat forum in November 2015. He drove to Ohio and picked her up, then took her back to his home.
Authorities say Schroeder destroyed the girl’s cellphone and told her to change her appearance and use a different name.