Michigan man charged after child found at Kalamazoo hotel

A 27-year-old Port Huron man has been charged with felony child solicitation and kidnapping after being found with a child from Kosciusko County, Indiana, at a hotel in Kalamazoo.

Court documents indicate the child left their home in the early morning hours of September 13. Investigators traced Austin Birtel’s cell phone to the Kalamazoo hotel, where police located him with the child, whose age was not revealed.

The child told police that they and Birtel planned to have sexual intercourse and had discussed traveling around the United States together. Birtel was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail on a $70,500 bond.

Read the full story at wndu.com.