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SALT LAKE CITY — An Ohio man was arrested in Salt Lake City Thursday after an online sting operation caught him attempting to travel to engage in sexual conduct with a minor, according to charging documents.
Millard J. Lonkey Jr., 61, of Somerset, Ohio, was arrested Thursday at a Flying J truck stop in Salt Lake City at 900 West and 2025 South, where he believed he was meeting up to engage in sexual activity with a 9-year-old girl, per charging documents filed the same day. The girl was fictitious in reality, as was the identity of her “mother,” which was used by a detective in an online chat room.
After setting up an undercover user name in a chat room roughly a month earlier, the detective in question received a message from a new account on Wednesday, June 17, inquiring as to whether the fictitious personality had a daughter, according to the documents. The detective engaged the user, claiming to have a 9-year-old daughter.
The conversation progressed, and it was arranged for the fictitious mother and daughter to meet with the user’s “boyfriend,” who was identified in the chat room under a pseudonym. The location was determined as the above-noted truck stop in Salt Lake City, the documents stated.
The following day, the detective maintained text message contact and confirmed the destination and time with the “boyfriend,” who was reportedly traveling through Salt Lake City from out of state. In the early afternoon, a man matching the description given through these text messages approached the detective’s vehicle to introduce himself, per the charging documents. He was arrested immediately, identified as Lonkey, and charged with traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, the documents stated.
Upon his arrest, it was discovered that Lonkey was convicted of disseminating indecent material to minors in New York in 2000.
