Grandmother condemns 'predator'

COEUR d'ALENE - Joshua MacKenzie's red Ford Ranger, with empty energy-drink cans, My Little Pony collectible cards and Playstation games inside, has a new sticker on it: A 48-hour warning tag from the Coeur d'Alene Police Department.

MacKenzie, 26, is in jail awaiting trial. He's accused of driving from Alberta, Canada, to the Coeur d'Alene apartment complex where his truck is still parked and where he allegedly picked up a 16-year-old girl. According to the girl's grandmother, the meeting - and the reported sexual encounter that occurred - was the culmination of an online relationship spanning two years.

"Two years ago he sent a 'friend request' to my other granddaughter," the grandmother told The Press Thursday. "When he asked for naked pictures of her, her mom blocked him. But then he added this granddaughter - she was just 14 at the time."

The alleged victim's mother, the grandmother said, caught on to the Internet relationship and changed the password on her daughter's Facebook page.

"But they figured out some way to stay in contact," the grandmother said. "Their mother puts so many restrictions on these kids, but they find a way."

On Monday, June 30, at 10:30 p.m., MacKenzie picked the girl up and the two checked into a motel on Appleway Avenue, authorities say.

The girl's mother thought her daughter was camping with friends, the grandmother said. However, at 2 a.m., the mom received a phone call from a friend who had just seen the girl in downtown Coeur d'Alene.

"We immediately began frantically looking for her," the grandmother said.

After numerous attempts to contact the girl on her cellphone, the girl's mother was finally successful on Tuesday morning. Once she learned that her daughter was not camping and that instead she was with a man, the mom told her daughter to put MacKenzie on the phone.

"She asked him if he knew how old she (the alleged victim) was and he said he did," the grandmother said. "Immediately my daughter said, 'Get my (expletive deleted) daughter home."

Once the duo arrived at the apartment, the grandmother said her daughter went into the bathroom and dialed 911. The Coeur d'Alene Police Department arrived and took MacKenzie in for questioning. Sgt. Christie Wood said it is common for the police to give suspects a ride, which is why the man's truck is still parked at the apartment complex.

The alleged victim is on what her grandmother called "suicide watch" and is never out of sight of one of her family members. Seeing a string of comments on the Coeur d'Alene Police Department's Facebook page regarding the incident, many of them questioning the girl's innocence in the matter, her grandmother said she wanted to make people "aware of the truth."

"I can't believe how people are condemning my granddaughter," she said. "He's a predator, he knew how to draw her in and she fell in love with him. He's the one who chose to pursue it. He should have cut it off. Obviously he chose to continue on with it."

In Kootenai County District Court, MacKenzie was charged with rape and sexual battery committed by lewd or lascivious acts on a minor.