By  Steve Huff   

June 12, 2006

NAPERVILLE, Ill.  (Crime Library) — Jay D. Coffield of Morris, IL, age 44, was arrested in a coffee shop in Naperville on Friday, June 9, 2006. Morris expected to meet a 14-year-old girl he'd gotten to know via MySpace.com, the hugely popular personal networking and blogging domain typically geared towards young users. Instead, Jay Coffield was cuffed and taken to a jail in Joliet, IL.

Coffield had befriended a real 14-year-old, but on May 22, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, an older relative of the girl's reported the possibly improper relationship to Naperville police. Investigators then assumed the girl's online ID and proceeded to develop a relationship with Jay Coffield.

Police reported to the Sun-Times that Coffield drew what he thought was the 'girl' into sexually-charged conversations. Plans were eventually made, authorities say, for Jay Coffield to pick the teen up at the coffee shop and then go to DuPage River Park for a sexual encounter.

Coffield's arrest marked the second time in six weeks, according to United Press International, that police in Naperville, Illinois used the internet to trap an alleged predator.

A month before Jay D. Coffield made his ill-advised trip to the coffee shop, Naperville police arrested John R. Wentworth, age 27. Wentworth was charged with both molestation and attempting to lure more than one underage girl via the internet.

Next Page

Steve Huff can be reached via the contact form at his weblog, http://www.HuffCrimeBlog.com/.

For more daily crime news