A Bucks County, Pennsylvania, man was arrested after he sent explicit photos and messages to a 14-year-old influencer and then traveled to her home in the Florida Panhandle region while trying to meet her, authorities say.
Trevose resident Jarred Easter, 29, is in custody in Walton County, Florida, on multiple criminal charges, including solicitation of a minor and transmitting harmful material to a minor, the county sheriff’s office said in a news release.
An affidavit filed in Walton County court says Easter frequently emailed the teenage girl in reference to her public social media posts, using the email address that was available on her social media profiles. The messages were sexually explicit and included nude photographs of Easter, the document says.
After sending “disturbing emails, nude photographs and obsessive messages” for three months, Easter tracked the influencer’s location to her home and showed up there. He then confronted the victim’s father in the driveway while asking to speak to her.
The father demanded the man leave and then contacted the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.
He was arrested Monday, Aug. 18, after the office’s cyber crimes unit tracked his location to a hotel in Crestview, in neighboring Okaloosa County.
“This was a sick-minded individual who convinced himself he had a relationship with a child,” Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said in a news release. “We are grateful the victim wasn’t harmed, and we are working tirelessly to ensure there are no other victims connected to this predator. Perverts who cross state lines to target children will find themselves in handcuffs.”
Easter was ordered to wear a GPS monitor, have no contact with minors or access to the internet, and was issued a $250,000 bond.
The Walton County Sheriff’s Office says “a digital footprint can unintentionally provide clues to a child’s location or habits.”
Parents are urged to encourage children not to share identifiable details like their school name, neighborhood or frequent hangout spots on their public profiles, enable privacy settings and report suspicious interactions to law enforcement.
