Missing 13-year-old found in LA motel with accused online extremist

(CN) — The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force announced the California arrest of a Pennsylvania man reportedly involved in group that strives to “sow chaos” Monday, after he was found with a 13-year-old girl in a Los Angeles County motel room on Feb. 20.

Matthew Edward Pysher, 18, was charged with travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, a felony that carries a potential 30 year prison sentence.

Pysher reportedly flew from Philadelphia to meet the girl, from the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, after three months of conversations online through the messaging platform Discord. Law enforcement claims Pysher coerced the girl into sending nude photos and told her to cut herself and send photos of the injuries.

At a press conference, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Pysher, who went by the username “Piano Man,” targeted vulnerable victims who admitted to “mental health issues” and groomed the girl through social media and using false affection.

Essayli said Pysher belonged to an unorganized group of “despondent young males” who engage in nihilistic violent extremism, or NVE.

The 13-year-old girl ran away from home in order to meet up with Pysher, officials say, and left a suicide note. Her mother informed law enforcement and she was found by California Highway Patrol, Los Angeles police and LA County sheriff’s officers at the Rodeway Inn Motel in Castaic, in northwestern Los Angeles County.

 At the motel, officers reportedly retrieved razor blades, knives, lubricant and bloody tissues. The girl was “choked to the point she could not speak,” said Essayli, but was found alive.

Essayli called NVEs some of the most “twisted and disturbing ideas to crawl out of internet.”

Generally, NVE involves young men, sometimes minors themselves, communicating with younger adolescents and urging them to self-harm and self-mutilation while also sexually coercing them.

Often, men who engage with NVE ideology extort their victims after they have received sexually explicit material from them, and threaten to publish the material unless the victims start to harm themselves and document it for the perpetrator. The reason behind the activities, Essayli said, is the desire to see “the collapse of society.”

“You may think you know what your kids are doing online, but you have no idea,” he said.

NVEs are characterized by individual behavior and not an overarching manifesto or goal. Most are unnamed, however a few, such as the “764” group can have loose network connections.

Parental vigilance was a common refrain at the press conference, with FBI Assistant Director Akil Davis and Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna echoing Essayli’s calls for parents to monitor their children’s online activities.

“Unfortunately, NVE cases are on the rise,” Davis said, noting the FBI is currently investigating 450 cases that involve violent online groups.  

Luna said Pysher’s crimes were “wicked” and “grotesque” and said it was important for parents to stay informed on their kid’s behavior, especially if a parent notices physical injuries, or a child becomes withdrawn after spending time online.

“This is probably happening right now, while we are sitting in this room, so we have to pay attention,” he said.