A Colorado man has been charged after allegedly driving to Wisconsin and attempting to pick up a 16-year-old girl in Suamico after talking to her online.
Curtis Bowser, 22, of Grand Junction, Colorado, was charged with attempted abduction of a child, child enticement, possession of THC and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The Brown County Sheriff's Office was contacted by the teen's concerned parents, who said an older man from Colorado was talking to their 16-year-old daughter online.
The parents had found out about the communication and tried to stop the teen from talking to the man, deputies said. Earlier this year, the parents had involved a school resource officer because the teen was talking to Bowser on a school-issued laptop at times, according to court documents.
However, Bowser sent the teenager a cell phone so she could talk to him without her parents knowing, the criminal complaint said. The parents then decided to get law enforcement involved.
After reading concerning Skype messages, the sheriff's office believed Bowser was on his way from Colorado to pick up the teenager in Wisconsin.
Law enforcement then tracked Bowser's cell phone and saw he was on his way to the Green Bay area. Just before 9 p.m. on October 11, a special agent with the Wisconsin DOJ saw Bowser's vehicle near Beaver Dam and followed him to Suamico where he was arrested.
Both the teenager and Bowser told police they had been online dating for the last nine months, according to court documents. However, they had been talking online through Facebook, Skype and other applications for about two years, they told police.
Officers found marijuana in Bowser's car when he was arrested, the criminal complaint said.
Bowser is being held on a $35,000 cash bond and cannot have contact with the teenage girl.
