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Man Who Flew 14-Year-Old Girl In From Connecticut Says He Was Trying To Help Her

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A man's cross-country flight ends in his capture after investigators say he brought back an underage girl he met online. He's speaking out from behind bars.

"It was planned out over a period of about two months," said Nathan Salas.

A misguided attempt to help, he says, has now landed him behind bars.

Salas admits to forging a relationship with a 14-year-old Connecticut girl online, often chatting with her on webcam. He says the relationship wasn't sexual and he never saw her without her clothes on.

It was a platonic friendship, he says. Then the teen started telling him about alleged verbal abuse and neglect.

"'My dad doesn't pay attention to me, my mom doesn't pay attention to me, my dad is always yelling at me.'"

Salas says after a number of conversations, he believed the girl may be in danger.

"I thought, you know, I cant leave her in a situation like that."

But here's where things allegedly turn criminal. Salas says he came up with a plan to bring the girl to California. He flew to Connecticut, picked her up, then the two flew back.

But deputies figured out the plan and arrested Salas at Sacramento International Airport.

"He absolutely knew she was 14 years old," said Sacramento County Sheriff's Sgt. Jason Ramos, "and I'd be hard pressed to think that anyone could that think what he did, with her in flying her across the country to pursue life happily ever after with him would be legal."

When asked if he had any regrets, Salas responded, "Do I regret trying to get her out of there, and away from an abusive home? No. Do I regret not waiting 'til she was 18 to do it legally?

Yeah."

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