Man Drives 40 Hours to Stalk 15 Year-Old Girl He Met Online in Halo
The emotionally unbalanced loon in question this time is Joshua Stetar. Stetar, 20, was arrested last week in Spokane, Washington, for stalking and harassing a 15 year-old girl and her 6 year-old sister he met online playing 'Halo'. Stetar drove 40 hours, nonstop, across country from his home in Granville, New York, to sit outside the young girls' house and threatened, via text message, to rape her and her sister.
Terrifyingly enough, this was not the first encounter with Stetar that clearly crossed the line. Stetar sent flowers to the jailbait gamer several times over a one-year period and flooded her cell phone with hundreds of text messages. Stetar even flew to Spokane in October to stake out her house.
Apparently Stetar, whose MySpace page is packed to the brim with Bible quotes and homophobic rants, missed the lesson in Sunday school where they explained that stalking, harassing, and raping little girls would not be considered the right thing to do.
The other question here, however, is how Stetar acquired the girl's address and cell phone number. We have to guess she gave that info to him before she knew he was a little less-than stable, but this all proves one thing: Watch who your kids are gaming with online.
From the Times Union
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Victoria said 12:34PM on 1-04-2008
What a stupid girl! If she in fact gave her personal info to this nut case, she could have ended up raped and murdered. She also endangered her sister and parents as well. I hope her parents remove the computer from the home and put her in theraphy. She sounds like she has some major issues.
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Kelly said 1:13PM on 1-04-2008
This is a case of parents NOT knowing what is going on in their own home with their children! As a mom of 3 girls I know that I talk to them constantly about not putting ANY or giving any info on anything. This is a world full of SICK people who thrive on these type of children! As parents it is our responsibilaty to PROTECT our children! I do however feel for this family and am very thankful that nothing horrible happened to them. Hopefully she and her parents as well have learned from this!
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Akilah said 2:38PM on 1-04-2008
This is the reason why,I always monitor what my children are doing and watching online.We as parents have really got to step it up when it comes to watching what our children do online.
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matt said 8:04PM on 1-04-2008
This is silly. This guy is clearly a freak and a half. He should be arrested and tossed in jail for 40 years. He probably gets payday loans all day from http://www.christianfaithfinancial.com because he is a true moron.
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David Norton said 9:18PM on 1-04-2008
This guy's elevator definitely does not go all the way to the top. I also blame the girl. She should not give out her personal information to a total stranger. He could have harmed her sister and parents as well. This guy should be taken to an institution for psychiatric evaluation.
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David Norton said 9:18PM on 1-04-2008
This is unbelieveable. This guy's elevator definitely does not go to the top. He needs psychiatric help.
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Canada said 11:39PM on 1-04-2008
My Bubles is pregnant
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Alisha said 12:43AM on 1-05-2008
Well first of all im a girl and i play halo 3 online when ever i get the chance to, and once the guys on there hear that i am a girl most of the time they tend to make nasty remarks which then i block off communications from them. alot of people are kool on there you just have to watch who youre playing with. Second of all this girl is 15 where was her parents when she is online talking to guys and giving them her addrress and phone number???? Great parenting!! I think she brought it on her self, i mean who would do that? but yeah its things like this that gives all the good gamers who are only there to play the game a bad name, its sad.
Alisha
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Dee said 4:40PM on 1-05-2008
It is sad that Victoria feels that this girl should have been raped and murdered because of her foolish choices. Honestly, too many people are willing to blame the girl. Yes, she made poor choices but she is 15. Can any adult on this forum actually say that their maturity level is that of when they were 15? If so, I am sorry to hear that. It is proven by research that the brain actually reaches its peak maturity by 26 (excluding substance abusers).
As a parent I know that one cannot realistically monitor your child minute by minute unless you tie them to you particularly when there is more than one. I have had to go the extreme of using parental controls AND removing the monitor when I wasn't present. BUT...there are no guarantees. Where there is a will there is a way. Some folks believe that if they do not have behavioral problems with there children then there aren't any problems. This is not so. Many believe their children tell them everything. Kids do tell you everything....everything they WANT you to know.
I am just grateful that the young man was caught before he did anything to harm that family or anyone else. This man obviously does not need to be free in our society.
Perhaps our judicial system needs revamping.
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Jill said 4:43PM on 1-05-2008
Perfect parents please do not patronize the rest of us with your bs comments. No one ALWAYS or CONSTANTLY does anything. No one is perfect and kids do stupid things everyday. If you are so convinced your kids will defy you don't let them online, and if they are that defiant I guess your perfect parenting wasn't so perfect after all. No one has all the answers and no one has perfect children. We can only keep open those lines of communication, tell them the scary stories which we all know they think will NEVER happen to them, pray, and hope for the best. Good luck and peace to us all.
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Jill said 4:46PM on 1-05-2008
I second Dee's comments... btw Happy New Year to all!
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Dee said 4:47PM on 1-05-2008
Hi Jill,
It seems that many on the forum do not have children or are living in a Pollyanna type world, huh?
Dee
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Dee said 4:51PM on 1-05-2008
I must apologize for failing to notice that Victoria did NOT say that the girl "should" have been raped or murdered. She said "could" have been. My error. Sorry, Victoria!!
=[
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Jill said 4:58PM on 1-05-2008
Indeed, Dee, indeed.
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Daniel Gaunt said 7:54AM on 1-06-2008
well at least it got him out of the house!
we're told over and over not to give out personal details on the internet, butg some people need this to happen to get the message across
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textmessagepro said 3:37PM on 1-06-2008
I want to know how a 20 year old nut case like this could afford the gas from New York to Washington !
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Sandi said 6:54AM on 1-08-2008
Get a clue Vickums, she's 15 years old. Kids are famous for bad choices and I'm sure you made your share. Put the blame where it belongs. Squarely on the ADULT freak who stalked her and quit blaming the victim.
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abbie said 6:57AM on 1-08-2008
You might watch what your kids are doing online. But do you know that they are sending nekkid pictures and videos of themselves with their cell phones. I have had to contact a girls parents and let them know that their daughter was using her cell phone to email my teenage son (who i obviously do monitor) nasty pictures and videos of herself. But these parents didnt care obviously because after I banned him from my computer and kept checking his email account, she still had her phone and was still sending the crap. Best thing, get a basic phone for your kid with no picture or video ability. Better yet, we survived without the damned things, why do they need them?
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Becka said 7:01AM on 1-08-2008
Victoria - how dare you say the FIFTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL is the one with the issues! It's NOT that hard to find someone going off a bit of info accidentally revealed.
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susan said 7:31AM on 1-08-2008
As a teenager once and now a parent I think I can say with 100% accuracy that kids LIE!! Parents cannot be on top of their kids 24/7 and you hope that you raise them with enough COMMON SENSE and smarts to know better and not to give out personally info. This girl probably thought nothing of it but she unfortunately ran into a lunatic. She is very lucky and I am sure she will NEVER give out info again. Her parents are not to blame, she is partially to blame and this sicko is 100% blame. For a 20 year old to even talk to a 15 year old girl is not normal right there. He should be out having fun with kids his own age but I guess they all know better!!!
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