A New Jersey man is facing multiple charges for the alleged sexual assault of a “lost” child he saw walking along a highway in Ocean County, officials said Wednesday.
Keith Hahn, 46, was arrested Tuesday at his Toms River residence following a multiple-agency investigation of an incident involving a 14-year-old girl.
According to investigators, the disturbing incident occurred on Sunday.
Hahn was driving a white Jeep Grand Cherokee when he saw a 14-year girl who “had been walking on Route 70 in Manchester Township when she became lost,” the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release.
Hahn allegedly stopped to talk to the victim, who asked him if he could drive her to the animal shelter in Toms River.
She got into the car and Hahn started driving, but instead of taking her to the shelter, he drove her to an undisclosed area and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said. He then drove her to a Walmart store, when she exited the vehicle and ran home.
Later that day, the victim contacted the Manchester Township Police Department to report she had been sexually assaulted.
An investigation led by the prosecutor’s special victims unit later revealed that Hahn — a registered sex offender — was the person who had raped the teen.
Hahn was arrested Tuesday and charged with aggravated sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual contact, kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child and other offenses, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.
He’s being held at the Ocean County Jail pending a detention hearing.
