California Man Accused Of Using Internet To Lure 13 Year Old Utah Girl

March 27, 2009

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The FBI Arrested 40 year-old Robert Lavern Davison and brought him to Utah to go before a judge this week. Police say he used the internet to lure a 13 year-old girl from Centerville, Utah to California. Centerville Police Sgt. Von Steenblik said officers got to the Greyhound Bus terminal in Salt Lake "about an hour" before the girl was to board the bus to meet Davison.

Steenblik said the suspect and victim met on the internet last year, while playing the game "World of Warcraft." They chatted via the game, then they began e-mailing, then talking on the phone. In November, the victim's mother called police and reported her daughter had not made it to school. With the help of officers from the state's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the girl's computer and cell phone were searched. That's when they learned she'd been chatting with Davison for months.

"On a hunch," said Steenblik, officers headed for the Intermodal Hub in Salt Lake. There they found the girl waiting for the bus to California. When officers explained who she was really going to meet, they say she was shocked. "She thought she was going to someone wonderful, who was going to take care of her," said Steenblik.

Officers then posed as the 13 year old girl and continued to chat with Davison online. Steenblik says his chats became more sexual in nature, "The things he wanted to do to her were graphic and violent." The FBI arrested Davison at his house in Kelseyville, California. He appeared before a judge Wednesday and remained locked up with no bail.

Timothy Furhman, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Salt Lake, said officers often pose as young girls, to lure predators to justice. But this case is significant because "There was actually a live victim, not an undercover victim."