14-Year-Old Missing Bakersfield Girl Recovered in Sacramento
Florida Man Arrested
| U.S. Attorney’s Office April 14, 2010 |
FRESNO, CA—United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today that David Charles Zastrow, 51, of Lehigh Acres, Fla., was arrested yesterday evening in Sacramento, charged by criminal complaint with three federal crimes related to the disappearance of a Bakersfield girl. David Zastrow’s son Christopher Zastrow, 21, was also arrested and booked into the Sacramento County Jail on a charge of child concealment.
This case is the product of an investigation by Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI’s Violent Crime Squad and Task Force, with assistance from the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, the Sacramento Police Department, and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.
Several members of the public also provided valuable tips in response to a Missing Person flyer prepared and distributed by the Kern County Sheriff’s Office.
According Assistant United States Attorney David Gappa, who is prosecuting the case, David Zastrow is charged with traveling across state lines with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct; enticing a minor, and kidnapping. The complaint affidavit alleges that David Zastrow befriended the victim’s family and shared an apartment with the victim and her mother in Florida. The victim and her mother moved to Bakersfield in February 2010. Shortly thereafter David and Christopher Zastrow put their belongings in storage and made arrangements to take the victim from her mother in Bakersfield. The plan included smuggling a cell phone to the victim, so that she could have unlimited communication with David Zastrow.
On March 17, 2010, the victim disappeared from her home in Bakersfield and was recovered at a hotel in the Sacramento area late yesterday evening. She is now in the care of Child Protective Services and being interviewed and evaluated.
If convicted of the charges, Zastrow faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for crossing state lines with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. Enticing a minor carries a mandatory minimum term of 10 years and maximum of life with a fine of up to $250,000, and kidnapping has a potential life sentence and fine of up to $250,00.