Inset: Raymond Oscar Harlen (Miller County Sheriff”s Office). Background: The Miller County Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center in Texarkana, Ark. (Google Maps).
A Texas man is behind bars in Arkansas after threatening a minor he met on TikTok across state lines, law enforcement says.
Raymond Oscar Harlen, 20, stands accused of sexually grooming a child, sexual indecency with a child, sexual extortion, grooming a minor for future sex trafficking, terroristic threatening in the first degree, and use of a communication device.
The victim’s mother alerted authorities to the alleged underlying issues on May 18, according to the Miller County Sheriff’s Office.
Specifically, the woman said her 10-year-old daughter was receiving text messages on her personal cellphone from an unknown man, according to an affidavit obtained by the Texarkana Gazette.
The communications between the adult and child allegedly began over a week earlier, however, after the man contacted the girl by commenting on her TikTok posts, authorities say.
From there, the pair allegedly started to chat.
The girl, for her part, told the defendant she was “13 years old, yet he continues to talk to her,” according to the charging document.
Harlen was allegedly not shy about revealing his own details. Authorities say he sent “her a picture” of his face “showing who he is.”
At one point, the child and the adult began playing a game of truth or dare, according to law enforcement. This allegedly led to the messages between the pair becoming sexually explicit. Then, Harlen sent a nonexplicit picture of himself to coerce the girl into sending him an explicit image of herself, the sheriff’s office said.
Eventually, the girl blocked the man’s number, authorities said. Harlen then allegedly used another number to text the girl and ask her to unblock the original number, according to law enforcement.
The girl refused.
“Why do you want me to unblock that number,” she allegedly texted the second number, “cause I’m not and don’t call me.”
The rejection apparently prompted the man to send a 12-second video of someone holding a Glock-style handgun, the sheriff’s office said.
In the video, several other firearms appear on a table. Harlen also allegedly sent a picture of someone raising a middle finger to the camera with a gun visible in the background.
The affidavit elaborates on the man’s alleged message to the girl:
The suspect then says, “Bet. You won’t be exeting me buddy. I already found ya’ll matter of time when yall hear these guns blast through your house.”
Several text message exchanges followed, the sheriff’s office said.
Later, Harlen offered to send the victim money during a discussion about her age, according to law enforcement.
After law enforcement got involved, a detective traced the phone numbers back to the defendant, according to the charging document. Investigators then looked up Harlen’s driver’s license and determined the image matched the photo of his face the man allegedly sent the girl.
On June 17, authorities arrested the defendant in Johnston County, Texas, and extradited him to Miller County, Arkansas. He is being detained in the Miller County Detention Center on $500,000 bail.
