A girl, 13, liked a Snapchat photo of a teen boy. A man, 29, is charged with her rape
A mother’s check of her 13-year-old daughter’s phone unearthed a sexual encounter in the woods with a DeLand man, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said.
And, now, 29-year-old Joaquin Mendez has been charged with lewd and lascivious sexual battery on a minor under 16 and older than 12. As of Tuesday morning, Mendez remains there on $25,870 bond.
The media of attraction between Mendez and the girl, the sheriff’s office said, was Snapchat. The Snapchat profile and photo, however, wasn’t Mendez.
VCSO said Mendez lured the girl with the Snapchat profile “fuhwithjuan,” which had a photo of a slender teen boy with curly hair. Mendez’s current and past mugshots show a thick-necked man with short, straight hair and a goatee.
Friday, a mother made what VCSO called a “routine check” of her daughter’s text messages and saw enough to question her child. The sheriff’s office said the girl confessed to meeting Mendez via Snapchat, meeting him that morning and being driven to the woods, where the alleged statutory rape happened.
After Mendez’s arrest in Saturday’s first hours, the Volusia Sheriff’s Office said it discovered a similarly fake Instagram account.
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 10:14 AM with the headline "A girl, 13, liked a Snapchat photo of a teen boy. A man, 29, is charged with her rape."
