Joussard teen abducted by man met on Internet

M. Partington Richer
South Peace News

A Joussard teen is back at home safe and sound and an American teen who she met on the Internet has been charged with several counts including abducting a person under 16 years after the two were caught getting ready to leave Edmonton on a Greyhound bus July 18.

Joseph Christopher Birkner, 19, of Springfield, Mass. was on a Greyhound bus when he arrived in Joussard earlier this month, says a report from the RCMP in Faust. He located the 15-year-old girl with whom he'd been chatting on the Internet for several weeks and before long the two were headed to Edmonton in an allegedly stolen vehicle.

The girl's name is being withheld to protect her identity.

Faust detachment Acting Sgt. Jim Desautels says it was easy to connect the dots after police received a call from distraught parents saying their daughter had disappeared. A short time later police received another call from a resident in Joussard reporting his truck had been stolen overnight.

Desautels says officers were able to follow their investigation even more closely by tracing a call the girl made to her mother from an Edmonton payphone.

After they did that, Faust officers asked the Edmonton Police Service for help. That group, in turn, went looking and discovered the pair waiting to board yet another bus. Officers in that city also discovered the stolen truck a short distance away.

"I don't know what their plans were," says the officer, but the calls to Joussard were attempts to garner cash, not a ride home.

"It's the old story of mom and daughter had a fight," he says, and the recently arrived 'friend' gets involved in the mix.

"I don't know (Birkner's) intention, but I think (the plan to leave town) was something that developed" after his arrival in Joussard. And the 15-year-old was a willing participant, the officer added.

"But it's a situation where at that age she cannot consent to going with anybody."

That's why the Faust RCMP has charged the 19-year-old with abducting a person under 16, theft over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000.

What could be the most surprising twist in the crime, adds the officer, is the fact the teens hadn't been using a computer when they met in the chat rooms.

"It was cell phone-based e-mail," Desautels says, "and if the phone's Internet ready, it is something a parent cannot monitor."

He says several teens in Joussard have been using the cell phones to do their on-line 'chatting' all summer.

Desautels says immigration officials have also been consulted, "and as soon as the RCMP is finished with (Birkner), he'll have to deal with immigration" officials and will likely be deported.