Convicted unincorp. Glenview sex offender charged with grooming missing Boston girl

GLENVIEW, Ill. (WLS) -- The Cook County sheriff said this was an elaborate scheme of grooming.

Sheriff's deputies ended up finding the minor at the 42-year-old suspect's apartment in unincorporated Glenview, where she has been living for the last couple of weeks.

An investigation spanning from the Chicago suburbs to Boston now has Westin Opas behind bars.

Opas, from Glenview, is facing multiple felony charges as prosecutors say he "groomed and travelled to engage in sexual acts with an underage victim over the last year."

"The young girl went missing about three weeks ago out of Massachusetts," said County County Sheriff Thomas Dart. "Their law enforcement was on it immediately, started working the case and they were able to get some phone activity."

Dart said it all started when the two met on some sort of online game over the last year. Then, Opus continued to talk to the minor on an encrypted messaging platform called telegram.

The victim was believed to be 15 years old when she first met Opas. Investigators said, "An analysis of the victim's phone revealed Opas had knowledge of the victim's age."

"After grooming her, working her over the course of many weeks, months, he flew out there and met her a couple times, and then, he flew her out here as well," Dart said.

On Oct. 26, a warrant led police inside the Glenview apartment, where they found the girl, and Opas "was in possession of a firearm, ammunition, and body armor."

Opas is a convicted sex offender, stemming from charges in a 2004 child pornography case out of Orange County, Florida.

Then, in September of this year, Opas was charged in Cook County for violating sex offender registration laws after he was found in a school zone.

Dart said predators are all over the internet and gaming platforms, so it's critical for parents to be on the lookout.

"Parents just have to be wildly nosey and wildly engaged," Dart said. "They have to absolutely know what games their kids are playing and who they're playing them with."

The sheriff's office said this will continue to be a complex investigation because it involves different jurisdictions and possibly even the FBI.

Opas is due back in court on Nov. 16.