A 43-year-old man who cops say traveled to L.A. County to have sex with a 15-year-old he met on Facebook was facing five felony charges this week.

Michael Scheetz of Westerville, Ohio was charged yesterday with suspicion of sexual assault and other counts after he met the girl in person over the weekend in Lancaster, authorities announced today.

Here's what sheriff's officials say happened:

As deputies started looking for a 15-year-old girl reporting missing on Sunday they figured out that she had run away to meet a man.

Cops caught up with Scheetz the next day and, at first, he denied knowing where was, according to a sheriff's statement: But deputies say he soon fessed-up, leading them …

… to a desert field located east of 15th Street West in the City of Lancaster, where the victim was found laying on the ground.


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Beautiful Lancaster. It only gets creepier:

The girl told authorities she had been sexually assaulted, and she was taken to a hospital to get checked out.

She told deputies she met Scheetz on Facebook six months ago and that on Friday he traveled from Ohio to L.A. County just to see her and have sex, according to the sheriff's statement:

Detectives determined that the suspect knew the victim's age before he traveled to California, but it was not a deterrent.

Scheetz was jailed in lieu of $1.275 million.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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