Man threatens 17-year-old online, gets her to carve his name on thigh, feds say
A Virginia man targeted a teen girl online, threatening retaliation if she didn’t do what he wanted, such as cutting herself and sending nude photos, prosecutors said.
Now, Evan Strauss, 26, from Moneta, is heading to prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia said in an Aug. 1 news release.
He was sentenced to 15 years behind bars after pleading guilty to one count of possession of child pornography and one count of stalking, prosecutors said.
McClatchy News reached out to an attorney for Strauss on Aug. 4 and was awaiting a response.
Strauss, known online as “Reaper,” was part of the Community, an internet group “that engaged in cyberstalking and extortion,” prosecutors said.
Strauss met a 17-year-old from Wyoming online in November 2023, and at first they “were in a consensual relationship,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
But, “within a matter of days, Mr. Strauss became controlling and abusive,” prosecutors said.
He made threats to harm the teen and her family, to kill her cat and to have her sisters taken away, according to prosecutors.
He made the threats “seemingly at least in part out of pure enjoyment,” prosecutors said, but he also used them “to try to get things in return.”
For example, “he got her to cut herself, including carving his online moniker, ‘Reaper,’ into her thigh,” according to prosecutors.
He also “tried to get her to send him nude photos,” prosecutors said.
When she began dating someone else, Strauss doxed her and reported to Wyoming officials that she was harming herself and sharing nude photos, according to prosecutors.
“While true, Mr. Strauss conveniently left out that (the teen) was acting as she was to ward off his threats, not to mention that he was filing this report for purposes of revenge and intimidation rather than out of genuine concern for (her) well-being,” prosecutors said.
In January 2024, officials searched Strauss’ home and found a cell phone with an explicit photo and recordings of the teen, prosecutors said.
Moneta is about a 25-mile drive southeast from Roanoke.
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