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DENVER (KDVR) — It’s a perspective we rarely ever hear: a loved one of a suspected pedophile who once ran for political office.

FOX31 sat down with the sister of Nathan Larson, a man who recently died behind bars waiting for trial in a kidnapping and child porn case that came to a head right at Denver International Airport.

From running for political office to running a website — one that, according to police, is centered around pedophilia.

“He used to write about Susan B Anthony, he used to write about these feminist leaders,” Larson’s sister, Alyah Fox, said. “Having someone like this in your family is like a lot of things become normalized that are not normal.”

A history of troubled behavior

Fox is trying to make sense of the path that led her brother to his death behind bars in September. Larson was waiting for trial after authorities caught him at DIA with a 12-year-old in 2020.

“He had this sense of, like, this girl was like some kind of partner with him,” Fox said. “Like in a sense, she seemed to agree with him on a lot of his stances on things. That’s what was weird because the way he talks about it, he talks about her like she’s an adult woman.”

Larson came to live with Fox in Colorado more than a decade ago. She had hoped it would get him out of a depressive and suicidal slump he was facing. However, while living in Boulder in December 2008, Larson sent a detailed email to the U.S. Secret Service threatening to kill the president of the United States.

At the time, George W. Bush was the outgoing president and Barack Obama was the incoming president. Larson pleaded guilty in federal court, and in October 2009, he was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison and served 14 of them.

“So. that’s kind of what he was saying about the girl: It’s almost like he does these stunts really to like, get attention and this feeling of like, people aren’t listening, so he’ll do something like more extreme and more extreme,” Fox said.

Trauma, mental illness, play a part

Fox thinks that yearning for attention is a result of trauma and mental illnesses she now recognizes in her brother starting when he was 15 years old and a 40-year-old man came on to him sexually.

Fox remembers talking to him then. She remembers trying to get him help over the years and she hurts wondering if something could have been different had there been more focus on treating his mental illnesses.

“I think it’s like no matter how much you try to awaken someone and no matter how much love that you’re sending them, they still just want to be on this path,” Fox said. “That’s really tragic to me because I’m not a person that gives up on people, but I have to give up on him.”