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A local man was arrested on a child solicitation charge.
Tyler Russell Spore, 22, is charged with child solicitation, a level 5 felony. He had a Crawfordville address according to his booking information, but his court documents have his address as 9672 E. Excalibur Place, Cromwell.
He was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail at 7:44 p.m. Friday on a $27,500 preliminary bond.
According to the probable cause affidavit, at about 4:07 p.m. Jan. 14, dispatch advised law enforcement a man, later identified as Spore, attempted to meet with a juvenile for sex at the juvenile’s residence. A Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to the scene.
The deputy talked to the mother of the juvenile. When the mother got home, she said the juvenile was distressed. When she asked what was wrong, the juvenile said they were receiving explicit messages from Spore on SnapChat, which started at 1 a.m. Jan. 13 and ended at about 5:30 a.m. The juvenile took screenshots of the messages. Spore became angry with the juvenile and the juvenile blocked him.
On or about Jan. 29, the juvenile participated in a forensic interview at the Safe Harbor Children’s Advocacy Center. The juvenile said they were 15 and knew Spore since they were 11. Spore messaged the juvenile on SnapChat and told the juvenile to “come on down.” The juvenile said they refused because it was 1 a.m. The juvenile said they were scared and crying. They said they and Spore had communications in the past, but not sexual ones. The juvenile said Spore hid some of the messages to them, according to court documents.
At one point, the juvenile said they heard a knock on their window. They texted a friend asking if they saw anyone knock on their window. No one was visible.
The juvenile said they told their parents about the messages the next day. The juvenile told the interviewer Spore was aware of their age.
A detective spoke with a neighbor over the phone and the neighbor said they saw Spore the night he sent the messages to the juvenile getting back into his truck coming from the juvenile’s residence.
