"Oregon Man Accused of Using Social Media to Prey on Single Mothers and Children"

In Oregon, a man is accused of using social media to meet single mothers and sexually assault them and their daughters. Investigators fear there could be more victims in light of the new charges, and defendant Antonio Arredondo, 37, being a sex offender.

The Dallas Police Department in Oregon, Portland Police Bureau, the Tigard Police Department, and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office discussed the allegations in a joint statement published Thursday.

On August 2nd, a grand jury in Washington state charged Arredondo with three counts of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sodomy, and three counts of first-degree sexual abuse.

A grand jury indicted him on Monday for another count of sex abuse in the first degree regarding a separate victim in the same county. Currently, he is being held in the local jail by the authorities.

“Through the investigation and indictment process, investigators and the Deputy District Attorney assigned to the case learned of at least two other cases in Oregon involving Arredondo with similar circumstances – the Portland Police Bureau is investigating one, and the City of Dallas Police is investigating the other,” deputies said.

Antonio Arredondo used social media to prey on single mothers and their daughters, authorities said. (Mugshot: Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

Investigators say Arredondo used social media to find single mothers, then gained their trust and sexually assaulted them or their daughters, or both.

“Investigators believe Arredondo uses social media apps such as Facebook to seek out single women with young daughters and pursues romantic relationships with the single mother,” they wrote. “Arredondo is eventually invited into the home of the victims and, over a short period of time, he sexually assaults the mother and or daughter.”

Oregon officials think he has been in the Pacific Northwest area for many years. Because there have been multiple incidents across Oregon, investigators and prosecutors have a strong belief that there are more victims in the wider Pacific Northwest region.

Records from Texas sex offender databases indicate that Arredondo was convicted in a 2009 case involving indecent contact with a child. The survivor of the abuse was 10 years old at the time.

“This is some kind of predator in our opinion,” Sgt. Danny DiPietro of the Washington County Sheriff’s office said, according to KGW.

The district attorney’s office in Washington County want him behind bars until trial.

“This Defendant is dangerous and has demonstrated a willingness and an ability to ingratiate himself with mothers so that he can victimize their daughters,” prosecutors wrote in a motion seeking pre-trial detention, according to KATU. “He is a sex offender who is violently re-offending and making statements suggestive of a willingness to physically harm the witnesses. The community is at risk, as are the people who have come forward.”

The judge is scheduled to rule Tuesday on setting a bond.