Fairfax County man raped Howard County boy weekly for months, police say

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. - A Fairfax County raped a teenage boy from Howard County for months, according to authorities.

Howard County police said 32-year-old Joseph Coffinberger of Reston, Virginia met the 13-year-old boy from Ellicott City, Maryland on the Live.me streaming app. FOX 5 sister station KTTV in Los Angeles recently conducted an investigation into Live.me which found pedophiles using the app to manipulate underage children into sexual acts and to sell recordings as child porn.

"This is not an uncommon thing, sadly, that often times young people may be targeted by suspects who are looking for this kind of thing online, using apps and cellphones," Sherry Llewellyn with the Howard County Police Department explained.

Detectives said the boy told his parents that he and Coffinberger had been chatting via text message and the Kik app for more than a year but that Coffinberger began driving from Virginia to have sex with him at least once a week starting in January. The 13-year-old said Coffinberger would pick him up near his home and would often take him to a Ramada Inn in Pikesville, Maryland where they engaged in anal and oral sex, according to investigators.

When Coffinberger arrived in Ellicott City to meet the boy on Tuesday, officers were waiting for him and arrested Coffinberger, the police department stated.

"We understood there was a meeting between the two that was coming up so instead of having the boy go to the meeting we had our officers there waiting to arrest him when he arrived," Llewellyn detailed.

Coffinberger has been charged with rape and sexual solicitation of a minor. He was being held without bond.

Investigators said they believe Coffinberger may have victimized other children in Maryland or Virginia and urged anyone with information to come forward by calling (410) 313-2630.

"We want people to take a look at his photograph, whether they are people in Maryland or Northern Virginia, we want people to come forward and let us know if they think they've been victimized," Llewellyn said.