Sheriff: Man wanted to marry Ky. teen, tried abducting her

HEBRON, Ky. – A Nevada man is accused of attempting to kidnap a 16-year-old Kentucky girl that he briefly talked with online years earlier and became obsessed with.

News outlets report 18-year-old Benjamin J. Margitza, of Las Vegas, was arrested Monday outside a Kentucky high school and charged with attempted kidnapping and minor and criminal trespassing.

A Boone County Sheriff’s Office statement says Margitza and the girl briefly spoke online four years ago. It says he began messaging the girl again this past year and began making explicit sexual statements and “obsessing over the victim by stating how he wanted to marry her.”

It says he travelled to the girl’s school and grabbed her in the parking lot. It says the girl ran and another student intervened, allowing the girl to contact authorities.