The investigation started in December of 2014, when a school official discovered chats between a 14 year old female student and a man on the girl’s school computer. The school district immediately notified the Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives learned that the man, claiming he was 22 years old, had been chatting online with the girl. The girl disclosed her true age and the man, identified as 31 year old Tyler Beavis from Canada, continued to pursue an online relationship.

During the chats Beavis told the girl he would fly to Seattle, rent a car and hotel room, so they could spend the weekend together. Beavis told the girl he would arrive on January 23rd, pick her up from school and take her to a hotel for the weekend.

King County Sheriff’s detectives learned that Beavis had indeed booked a flight from Toronto to Seattle. Detectives contacted the Ontario Provincial Police Department and arrangements were made for Canadian officers to go to the airport to see if Beavis boarded his flight.

Beavis boarded his flight and arrived at SeaTac before 11am. When he got off the plane he rented a car and then headed towards the girl’s school. Sheriff’s deputies were at the airport when he arrived and set up along the route to follow him. Just prior to arriving at the school he was stopped and arrested.

Special Agent Bryan Molnar from the Secret Service joined in on the investigation. During his investigation he discovered Beavis had also been chatting with two other underage girls, one in Virginia and the other in Michigan. The agent said there was evidence that Beavis had also intended to go to Michigan to see the girl.

On October 30th Beavis was sentenced to 78 months in Federal prison. The U.S. Attorney handling the case credited the conviction to the work of King County Sheriff’s Detectives Mary Priebe-Olson, Jason Escobar and Secret Service Special Agent Bryan Molnar.

“A lot of work went into this investigation,” said King County Sheriff John Urquhart. “Not only from the case detectives, but from the support they received from other detectives here at King County, the Ontario Provincial Police and Homeland Security.”