A Utah boy was groomed and kidnapped by an adult he met on Twitter after his parents made several attempts to block him from the website in November.
RELATED STORIES: D.C. Mom Demands Answers After Her Two Sons Are Kidnapped From School By Their Half-Brother’s Mother
Heather and Ken McConney revealed the pain they felt when their son was taken by an adult who groomed him for two months on Twitter, first in private messages and then publicly. The pair feels the kidnapping could have been avoided if law enforcement and Twitter had intervened, despite the abundance of proof on social media. The adult met their son on Roblox and Discord before moving their interactions to Twitter. Although Twitter only allowed users 13 and up, the teen made an account when he was 12 by lying about his birth year. The individual was only recognized by their username, @HunterFloofyFox, who referred to the teen as “my lamb” after making multiple references to the furry subculture.
The incident was reported to police in November, and the couple surrendered their son’s iPhone after discovering the sexually explicit text messages between him and @HunterFloofyFox. However, the boy found other ways to communicate, using a VR headset to interact with him at one point. Furthermore, the adult would remark on organizing a trip with McConney’s son. Almost a month before the kidnapping, authorities requested a search order for @HunterFloofyFox on Twitter, but they misspelled his username.
RELATED STORIES: Twitter Is Removing Blue Verification Badges From Celebs And Notable Figures Unless They Subscribe To Twitter Blue
Police approached Twitter again weeks after discovering the issue but did not respond. The teen was stolen five days later, and Ken McConney discovered out when he visited the boy’s room and found the window open. He told NBC News that his window was open and that the individual who took him crossed state borders multiple times to attack the teen sexually.
On Hunter Fox’s account, he frequently commented on the teen’s selfies on a school bus and other locations. He also reposted the photos, but they were deleted before they could be saved as future evidence. The teen was rescued in Nebraska a day after he was kidnapped after he was reported missing on the Amber Alert system. Twitter also provided information about the accused groomer, who was identified as Tadashi Kojima, aka Aaron Michael Zeman, a man who legally changed his name in 2018.
He was charged with four counts of sexual assault in Nebraska and federal kidnapping, coercion, and child pornography charges. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled for June.