Miami-Dade

Courts

Cops say man lured teen for sex using vampire website

 

dovalle@MiamiHerald.com

The teen revealed that she had first met Carrizo on VampireFreaks in June 2012 — two years after the man had been arrested for child porn. They knew each other’s true age, the girl told detectives.

Over the months, Carrizo “asked her several times if she was a cop and if this was a setup,” the warrant said. She sent him nude photos to prove she was not.

Then in December — two months after he had pleaded guilty — Carrizo began urging her to come to Miami for sex.

The teen admitted sneaking out of her home twice in early January, taking her mother’s car and driving to Miami to have sex with Carrizo, according to the warrant.

Carrizo lives with his mother in a Surfside apartment. When she snuck in, his mother was asleep on the couch, she recalled to detectives.

Carrizo created his VampireFreaks profile in February 2012, according to the website.

“We enjoy the night, the darkness, where we can do things that aren’t acceptable in the light,” he wrote. “Night is when we slake our thirst.”

This is not the first vampire-themed underage sex case in Miami-Dade.

In 2011, authorities arrested Christopher Rodriguez, of Homestead, after he hopped a trained to Virginia with a plan to seduce his 14-year-old online girlfriend and drug her mother with sleeping pills. Rodriguez, 28 at the time, met the girl through the online vampire role-playing site Reign of Blood.

Last month, Rodriguez was sentenced in Virginia to 15 years in prison.

As for VampireFreaks, the website claims 1.7 million users, who create profiles similar to how Facebook operates. In 2008, it even opened a New York City clothing store (it closed three years later).

But like other social networking sites, VampireFreaks has come under scrutiny because of bizarre and violent criminal behavior linked to users.

The most high-profile case: In 2007, 15-year-old girl, Carly Ryan, was found murdered in South Australia. She met her killers, a father-and-son duo, through the website.

In 2006, a 12-year-old Canadian girl and her 23-year-old boyfriend, both users of the site, were arrested and later convicted for the murders of her parents and 8-year-old brother.

In May 2010, Minnesota authorities charged a Scottish man with exchanging sexually explicit photos with a 14-year-old girl through the site. The man, who was not extradited, went by the online moniker: Master Alucard — Dracula spelled backward.

Read more Miami-Dade stories from the Miami Herald

Miami Herald

Join the
Discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere on the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

The Miami Herald uses Facebook's commenting system. You need to log in with a Facebook account in order to comment. If you have questions about commenting with your Facebook account, click here.

Have a news tip? You can send it anonymously. Click here to send us your tip - or - consider joining the Public Insight Network and become a source for The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald.

Hide Comments

This affects comments on all stories.

Cancel OK

  • Videos

  • Quick Job Search

Enter Keyword(s) Enter City Select a State Select a Category