The Feds say a man who coached a 13-year-old girl in self-harm behaviors online lured her to an LA motel to sleep with him.
A Pennsylvania man was arrested and charged after authorities rescued his 13-year-old victim from a Santa Clarita Valley hotel on Friday.
After meeting the girl online, Matthew Edward Pysher, 18, of Bangor, Pennsylvania, allegedly trained her to send him obscenities and self-harm. Authorities say Pysher traveled to Los Angeles last week to meet the victim, who had just turned 13 years old.
Authorities met Pysher and the victim in a Castaic motel room, where they found condoms, a knife, lubricant, razor blades, bloody tissues and a boarding pass when Pysher flew from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, according to a federal criminal complaint. The victim told authorities that Pysher slept with her, cut her with a knife and strangled her repeatedly until she was unable to speak.
Pysher was charged in a criminal complaint with traveling with intent to engage in unlawful sex. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. Pysher’s deputy public defender was not immediately available for comment.
At a press conference Monday, authorities said they believe Pysher is associated with violent extremist ideology, which U.S. First Assistant Bill Essayli called “a growing threat to American families” and “one of the most twisted and disturbing ideas to come out of the Internet.”
Essayli described violent extremists as individuals who “engage in criminal behavior in the United States to further goals derived primarily from public hatred and the desire to bring about its downfall by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction and social instability.” He said these people often work as part of a network – such as the 764 sexual harassment group.
These violent online groups are accused of abusing hundreds of young female victims around the world, according to Homeland Security Investigations. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline received more than 1,300 reports related to these online groups in 2024 alone.
Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said the number of violent extremists who target children is increasing across the country. The FBI is investigating more than 450 of these cases, he said.
Pysher’s case is the second to be charged in less than a week in California’s Central Valley. Last week, Bryant Najera Gonzalez, a 24-year-old Downey man, was arrested on a felony charge accusing him of forcing, luring and enticing minor girls to create and send him sexually explicit video.
Authorities accused Gonzalez of grooming one of the girls to take selfies and humiliate them and share the photos with others online.
“Finding and arresting people who are part of this vision and who take it very seriously,” Essayli said.
In a message to parents, Essayli said he does not believe children should be online, “because there is no way to be 100% sure that your children will not be raised or touched by a boy like this.”
“Any child who can access the Internet is a duck for these sick, confused and demonic people who want to harm your children,” said Essayli, who also urged parents to check their children’s phones.
According to the criminal complaint, authorities first heard about the victim on February 10, after her mother contacted the FBI because she was concerned that her daughter was being encouraged to harm herself by someone named “Matthew.” Authorities say the victim met Pysher on a Discord server related to people with mental illness and the two talked for about three months.
Essayli said on February 20, law enforcement took the victim’s digital assets to try to identify the person using the username online. That same day, he said, “it turned into an emergency” when the FBI discovered that the victim had run away from home and left behind a suicide note.
Law enforcement quickly identified Pysher as the person using the username on Discord and tracked him down to the lodge, according to the complaint. In the motel room, they found a Faraday bag, used to block electrical signals, next to Pysher’s cell phone.
According to the complaint, the victim told authorities that Pysher’s plan was for them to go upstairs to a “big” hotel and jump together.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Police Department and the California Highway Patrol, is investigating the matter.
