Police in Indiana are investigating after a woman said a man who is a registered sex offender used a photo of an officer killed in the line of duty more than 10 years ago in an elaborate catfishing scheme.
According to WBND-LD, 45-year-old Jeffrey Cooper was convicted of possessing child pornography in 2013 and isn’t even supposed to be using the internet. However, Virginia Johnson said she had been chatting with him on the internet for months before she found out he wasn’t who he said.
“I didn’t know a thing,” Johnson told WBND-LD. “He seemed normal. To be absolutely honest, they don’t exactly have it tattooed on their forehead, do they?”
Johnson, who is from Great Britain, hosts a chatroom on Fubar, and that’s where she allegedly met Cooper. She said the pair chatted for eight months and Cooper learned a lot about her, including her affinity for men in uniform. Cooper eventually sent her a photo, claiming it was his friend Scott. He told her Scott would love to meet her.
“I’m like, ‘Whoa! I’ve won the lottery! I’ve done everything just meeting this guy,’” she said. “You know what I mean?”
Johnson decided to visit the United States, and after a brief visit with her sister in California, she headed to South Bend to meet Cooper so she could meet Scott. She said Cooper picked her up at the airport and took her to a hotel and that’s when things started unraveling.
“‘Scott’s on his way. Scott just called. Scott’s done this,’” she told WBND-LD, detailing the excuses Cooper allegedly made about why Scott was a no-show. “And when it got to 11 o’clock at night, I thought, no, something ain’t right here.”
Johnson said Cooper was also in and out of the hotel room most of the evening, so she reached out to her sister to find out more about the photo Cooper sent. What she found out shocked her. The photo of “Scott” was actually a photo of Scott L. Severns, an officer with the South Bend Police Department who was killed in the line of duty in April of 2006.
“I went nuts!” Johnson said. “So I went to Skype and made that idiot take me back to the airport [at] about midnight.”
For his part, Cooper denies the allegations, stating he was visiting his wife in the hospital that evening and doesn’t even own a computer in the first place.
“I haven’t had a computer in a long time,” he said. “My wife just had a heart attack and I’ve been with her since Wednesday.”
Mishawaka Police said they are now investigating the alleged catfishing scheme.