GRAND ISLAND, Nebraska (ABC4) — An Arizona man who is accused of kidnapping a 13-year-old boy from Layton, Utah, has been arrested in Nebraska early Wednesday morning.
Officers from the Grand Island Police Department detained Tadashi Kojima, 26, around 3 a.m. local time after they found him in a vehicle parked at a gas station about 11 hours away from Utah. The 13-year-old boy was in the car with Kojima, and law enforcement is working to reunite him with his family.
Kojima is facing a second-degree felony charge of kidnapping and a class I misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest.
According to the affidavit, the boy’s father informed police that the 13-year-old was having “sexual and inappropriate” conversations with a man through an online game platform. The boy was then allegedly invited to join a Discord chat with the man.
Police say the man went by the name “Hunter Fox” on social media, and he was later identified as Aaron M. Zeman, also known as Tadashi Kojima. The boy’s father reportedly told officers that the two were exchanging photos and sexual texts through Discord and Twitter, adding that they then moved their conversations to FaceTime calls.
The probable cause document states the boy and Kojima arranged to meet on Tuesday, Dec. 27, and the man picked him up. Per Utah State Code, the age of consent is 18 years old. Therefore, the boy was not able to consent in any way.