A 36-year-old Oregon man is accused of attempting to meet up with a 12-year-old Vancouver girl for sex and instead found himself face to face with Vancouver police detectives.
Matthew A. Schrader, of Oregon City, appeared Friday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of second-degree attempted rape of a child and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. He was placed on supervised release, and he is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 9, court records show.
On July 20, Schrader responded to an online post made by the girl asking for advice about her sick cat. Schrader responded to the girl’s post via email but then asked her for her phone number, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Schrader continued to text the girl on her parents’ phone. He told the girl he could not help her with her sick cat, but he offered to come over to help her “figure this out,” the affidavit states.
Schrader proposed a time for him to go to the girl’s house and sent her a photo of himself. He asked her for a photo in return, but the girl described her appearance and told him her age. The pair continued to text until Schrader asked her if she liked older men and if she thought he was cute. At that point, the girl told him not to message her anymore, and she told her parents about the conversation, court records state.
The girl’s parents called 911, and on July 21, Vancouver police detectives began texting with Schrader on a new phone, posing as the girl. One detective used a computer program to alter her own photos to make herself look about 12 years old, according to the affidavit.
During the conversation with undercover detectives, court records state Schrader asked multiple times to have sex with the girl.
On July 28, Schrader texted that he was taking a bus from Oregon City to Vancouver Mall. He had arranged to meet there and then go to a house to have sex, according to the affidavit.
When detectives saw Schrader walking from the bus into the mall, they arrested him and brought him in for questioning. Officers say Schrader admitted to knowing the girl, whom he thought he was texting, was 12 years old and that he traveled to the mall that day to have sex with her, court records state.
