Great Lakes sailor accused of having sex with 14-year-old
A sailor at Naval Station Great Lakes is charged with five counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse after having sex with a 14-year-old girl, police said.
Seaman Adam S. Matthews, 21, of Beaufort, S.C., was arrested at the naval station July 23 after meeting with the teen earlier that day at the Homewood Hilton Suites in Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire Police Sgt. John-Erik Anderson said.
If found guilty of the felonies, Matthews could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison.
Anderson said Matthews and the girl met through an online dating site where she initially said she 18 years old. After an exchange of e-mails and text messages over a "couple of weeks," the girl told Matthews she was 16, Anderson said.
"Even though she was 14 and said she was 16, the girl confessed to being an underage minor and five years younger than Matthews," he said.
The pair arranged a meeting at the hotel at a time when the girl would be in town for a naval base graduation, Anderson said. Matthews checked into the hotel July 23.
Later that day, the girl told family members she was going to the lobby, Anderson said, but met Matthews in his room.
That evening, the girl's parents began searching for her after text messages and calls to her phone went unanswered. After checking the lobby and other areas of the hotel, they asked hotel staff for help to find the teen.
The search turned up empty, Anderson said, and the parents called police. Simultaneously, a hotel employee found the girl wandering a hallway and brought her to her stepfather.
As police, family members and the teen were meeting in the lobby to discuss the incident, a hotel guest noticed the girl and told the parents and police she was seen with an older man earlier in the day, Anderson said.
After questioning, the girl confessed to being with Matthews, Anderson said. Police contacted Great Lakes Police and the Navy, and arrested Matthews on the base that night.
Matthews was taken to bond court at Lake County jail, where he is held in lieu of $250,000 bond. He is expected to appear in court July 30.
Anderson said police and the Navy are investigating, but believe the July 23 meeting was the first between Matthews and the girl.