This Texan mother didn’t know why she did it, but when she noticed that her nine-year-old daughter had left her phone in the car, she decided to check its messages. One of the conversations baffled her.
It was from her daughter’s father’s friend, Jonathan Butler. Their conversation was laced with sexual undertones.
When she saw the text message in her child’s phone, she was at a loss on how to process what she had just read.
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Pretending to be her daughter, she texted him. They managed to build a steady conversation. The mother, whose identity she requested not to be revealed, screen captured the entire conversation for evidence.
Soon she delivered her masterstroke.
“I want you to be my first,” she said.
“You know I could get in so much trouble, though,” he replied, but agreed to have intercourse with the girl.
Once Butler said yes, the mother immediately contacted the local police. Bulter was soon arrested and charged with solicitation of a minor—a second degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.
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“It was sickening,” she told reporters. “My jaw dropped, and I started crying. It scares me to think that if it wasn’t because of the cellphone, what might have happened that weekend when she went to her dad’s.”
The nine-year-old’s phone has since been locked up and considered police evidence.
It would be replaced with a Firefly phone, the mother said. It is a simpler device, holding only four phone numbers, and does not have the ability to send or receive text messages.
“People may think there are certain ages that children shouldn’t have phones, and to each their own,” she said to reporters. “I don’t judge either way. In this case, this is what saved her life.”
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