SC man posed as 16-year-old online to stalk underage girl, feds say

The alleged harassment started earlier this month, when a federal complaint says a South Carolina man posing as a 16-year-old boy made contact with a 13-year-old girl from Kentucky on an internet site and persuaded her to call him on his cell phone.

When the teenage girl immediately realized the man who called himself “Mystic” was not 16, but an adult male, the man told the girl that he had a genetic condition that made him look older, according to a federal complaint filed in U.S. District Court Wednesday.

Nathan Branham, 39, of Cheraw, now faces federal charges after he was arrested Tuesday of online enticement and transfer of obscene material to a minor, federal court records show.

If convicted, Branham faces a minimum of 10 years in prison.

His lawyer, assistant federal public defender Casey Riddle, declined comment, saying her office doesn’t comment on pending cases.

Branham is currently being held in jail without bond pending a Tuesday detention hearing in federal court in Florence.

The complaint, filed by a federal agent who investigated Branham, said that after the girl saw the older man in the “Up Live” video, she ended the call. But then he started texting her, the complaint said, telling her that if she didn’t get in touch with him through video-calling app Google Duo, that he would use her cell phone number to find her location.

“You know I have your number so your address is not that hard to find, do you really want to try me?” the man said, according to the complaint. The girl told him he was scaring her, but he continued to call her and threaten her, the complaint said.

The complaint said Branham eventually demanded the girl provide him photos of her body, and the girl complied when he continued to say he would track down where she lives.

The girl later reported the incident to her mother, who with a friend, found that “Mystic” had a Facebook page with the name “Shuja Jahan” that included a photo of Branham dressed in religious clerical garb “including a skull cap, white tunic and scarf,” the complaint said.

The girl’s mother contacted the Kentucky Attorney General’s office, which sent the case to the federal authorities.

Agents with the U.S. Secret Service, which has an internet crimes division, were able to trace the phone number used by the girl to connect “Mystic” to Google Duo and the Facebook page with the name “Shuja Jahan” and linked them both to Branham in South Carolina, the complaint said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Shoemake is prosecuting the case. His office declined comment.