'I Think I Found A Child Predator': YouTube-Inspired Sleuth Helps Nab Stafford Man In Sting
After watching YouTube videos about catching child predators, a civilian helped state police arrest a Connecticut man accused of trying to meet a 15-year-old boy through a dating app, authorities said.
Eric Vendette, 49, of Stafford, was charged with risk of injury to a minor and using a computer to entice a minor under 18, Connecticut State Police announced.
According to investigators, the citizen sleuth contacted Vendette online and asked if he was “into younger men.” From there, the conversations escalated. Vendette, police said, claimed he would act like a father figure but continued to…
Teens Targeted Victims Through Dating App In Violent Ramapo Robbery Scheme: Police
Two 19-year-old men face a long list of charges — many as hate crimes — after allegedly luring victims through a dating app and attacking them in a Rockland County park, police said.
The arrests followed a detailed investigation by the Ramapo Police Department, which uncovered a disturbing pattern of threats, intimidation, and armed robberies, the department announced on Friday, June 20.
According to police, the two suspects, one from Flushing, Queens, and one from Monsey, used a dating app to lure victims to a children’s park in the Village of Wesley Hills during the late night and e…
Browns Mills Man Thought He'd Get Sex With 12-Year-Old — Then He Was Arrested: AG
A 36-year-old Brown Mills man was charged on Friday, June 6, after he tried to arrange sex with a 12-year-old girl, authorities said.
On Monday, April 7, a police officer officer posing as the mother of a 12-year-old girl was contacted on a dating app by Lockwood, and they began exchanging messages, Platkin said.
Lockwood told the "woman" he was into taboo sex, saying, "Daddy daughter is my favorite. Uncle niece fun too."
When the undercover officer told Lockwood her daughter was 12 years old, Lockwood requested pictures, Platkin said.
Over the next month, Lockwood repeatedly asked to mee…
Teen Uses Dating Apps To Lure, Rob Victims At Knife-Point On Long Island: Police
A 15-year-old has been arrested on charges including robbery after he allegedly used dating apps as a way to find his next robbery victim.
The teen was arrested on Sunday, June 23 for two New Cassel incidents, Nassau County Police said.
His arrest came following an investigation, which found that the unnamed 15-year-old boy used a dating app to arrange meetings with other boys on at least two occasions — on Friday, June 14, and on Friday, June 21.
However, once the two met at the prearranged location, the teen would get into his victim’s car, pull out a knife, and threaten to stab the d…
Man Poses As Nurse On Dating App, Then Assaults Several Women In Mount Vernon, NYC: Feds
A 30-year-old man faces kidnapping and cyberstalking charges after posing as a nurse on a dating application and brutalizing several women he met in Westchester and New York City, federal officials announced.
An eight-count indictment charging New Jersey resident Herman Brightman of West New York, also known as "Nazir Griffiths" and "Nazir Luckett," with kidnapping, cyberstalking, and more has been returned by a grand jury, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced on Monday, Dec. 11.
According to federal officials, between January 2022 and Septemb…
Dangerous Dating App Murder Suspect May Be In PA, Feds Warn
A suspect in a North Carolina murder case has ties to Delaware County and is "known to use dating apps," say US Marshals in Philadelphia.
Donald Ray Hodges, 49, is wanted in connection with a May 2022 killing in Conover, NC, Marshals said. He has family living in Delco, and residents are asked to keep an eye out, especially as they swipe through matchmaking apps.
Hodges — who has gone by the aliases "Tyrone Evans" and "Unique," according to authorities — is considered armed and dangerous, Marshals said. A $10,000 reward is offered for his capture.
The 49-year-ol…
NJ Dating App Serial Killer Gets 160 Years In State Prison
A New Jersey man who used dating apps to lure and kill three women -- and tried to kill a fourth -- was sentenced to 160 years behind bars.
Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, now 25, of Orange, was sentenced for three murders, an attempted murder and other counts of aggravated arson, desecration of human remain and kidnapping.
Weaver was convicted in 2019 in on three counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Sarah Butler, 20, Robin West, 19, and Joanne Brown, 33.
He was also found guilty of the kidnapping, sexual assault, and attempted murder of a fourth woman, Tiffany Taylor, who surviv…
