Media

Internet Meeting Leads To Rape Of 14-Year-Old Boy

Release Date: December 20, 2004

Shelby County Sheriff's Detectives are investigating the rape of a teenage boy this past weekend. The boy told investigators he met the man on the internet.

The investigation began just before midnight this past Friday, December 17, 2004. Shelby County Sheriff's Deputy Thomas Bolling was on routine patrol near Arlington. He noticed a car in the wooded area along Stewart Road not far from Highway 385.

When he approached the vehicle, he found a man and a young boy asleep in the front seat. After waking them up, deputies asked the boy why he was with the man.

At first the boy said the man was his uncle. Later, the boy admitted he had met the man earlier that evening in an internet chat room called “Tremors.com.” The boy said the man posed as a high school student and offered to take him shopping.

However, when the man picked up the boy, the man told the victim he was an uncle of the teenager he had agreed to meet. The man then drove the boy to a secluded area where he raped him.

Investigators arrested Freddie Cowser, III, who lives in Memphis. He has been charged with Statutory Rape and Solicitation of a Minor.

Detectives say Cowser had names and other internet addresses in his pockets. Those internet addresses are being investigated to see whether Cowser might have had dealings with those persons.

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