A Pennsylvania man has been arrested and federally charged after authorities rescued a 13-year-old from a Santa Clarita Valley motel on Friday, officials said.<\/p>\n
After meeting the young girl online, Matthew Edward Pysher, 18, of Bangor, Pa., allegedly groomed her to send him sexually explicit material of herself and to engage in acts of self-harm. Authorities say Pysher traveled to Los Angeles last week to meet the victim, who had recently turned 13.<\/p>\n
Authorities encountered Pysher and the victim at a Castaic motel room, where they found condoms, a knife, lubricant, razor blades, bloody tissues and a boarding pass for Pysher\u2019s flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, according to a federal criminal complaint. The victim told authorities that Pysher had sex with her, cut her with a knife and repeatedly choked her to the point that she couldn\u2019t speak.<\/p>\n
Pysher has been charged in the criminal complaint with travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. Pysher\u2019s deputy federal public defender could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
At a news conference Monday, authorities said they believed Pysher to be associated with nihilistic violent extremist ideology<\/a>, which First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli called \u201ca growing threat to American families\u201d and \u201cone of the most twisted and disturbing ideas to crawl out of the Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n Essayli described nihilistic violent extremists as individuals \u201cwho engage in criminal conduct within the United States to further goals that derive mainly from a hatred of society and a desire to bring about its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction and social instability.\u201d He said these individuals often work as part of a network \u2014 such as the violent sexploitation group called 764<\/a>.<\/p>\n These violent online groups have allegedly abused hundreds of mostly female minor victims worldwide, according to Homeland Security Investigations. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children\u2019s CyberTipline received more than 1,300 reports related to these online groups in 2024 alone.<\/p>\n Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles FBI field office, said the number of nihilistic violent extremists targeting children is growing nationwide. The FBI is investigating more than 450 of these cases, he said.<\/p>\n