BENTON COUNTY, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The Siloam Springs Police Department has arrested a man after he allegedly sexually extorted multiple teen girls.
Matthew Nance, 22, of Siloam Springs, was arrested on June 20 and is facing four felony counts of sexual extortion. According to a probable cause report, a Siloam Springs police officer was dispatched on April 28 in reference to a harassment or stalking call. The reporting party was the mother of a 17-year-old victim and the incident occurred at the Walmart Supercenter at 2901 East US Highway 412.
The girl reported that a man approached her and asked her to open a bank account. She declined, but he persisted and asked if she had an identification card. She produced one and he took it and walked to a nearby bank, where he set up an account for her.
He then asked for her phone “so he could set up the mobile banking app.” He returned the phone to her and contacted her the next day to say that he still had her driver’s license.
After speaking with him on the phone, the victim received a private message on Snapchat from someone she assumed was a classmate. That user then informed her that he had nude pictures of her and threatened to expose her to her family and friends. He asked for additional photos and called her names when she declined.
A search of that username revealed that it was connected to an account with the suspect’s name. When she collected her license from him the next day, “she confronted him about the Snapchat messages, but he denied it.”
Officers then contacted Nance and asked him if he knew anything about the messages and he replied that “it was not him.” When informed that the profile was attached to his name, he advised officers that someone else was using his name.
On May 24, investigators sent a search warrant to Snapchat for the account in question, which returned a phone number belonging to Nance, as well as an email address with a birthday matching his. Officers found “several chats” with four different girls in which “Nance was trying to extort the girls by saying he had nude photos of them.”
On June 20, the suspect was taken to the police department, read his Miranda rights, and interviewed. He again denied it was his account until he was shown the corroborating information. Nance then admitted that he would find girls on a different social media app and “try and find scandalous photos he could use against them.”
Nance told investigators that “he preferred girls between the ages of 14 and 18, because they would scare easier because they did not want to get in trouble with their parents.” When asked about his motive, he said that “it was about power to him” and that he enjoyed “being able to control them.” He added that power and control were also “why he wanted the assistant manager position at the bank.”
He said that “the most he can think of doing this to was approximately six girls.” Nance was arrested and booked into the Benton County Jail on a $75,000 bond.
The girl’s mother told investigators that she was glad to hear of the arrest, and added that her daughter “is terrified of going into Walmart because she is afraid Matthew Nance will see her” and that the victim can no longer go there alone “because of how afraid she is.”
Nance has an appearance scheduled in Benton County Circuit Court on July 25.