These Richland men are accused of grooming a teen to be their sexual slave

Update: Teen was groomed to be Richland men’s sex slave, police say. More victims are possible

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Two 44-year-old Richland men allegedly raped a teen girl over several years and shared explicit pictures and videos of her.

Police started looking at Matthew J. Lowe and Russell L. Meyer in October 2018 after the girl came forward.

However, it took investigators nearly a year to review electronics and digital evidence from Lowe, a cybersecurity expert, and build a criminal case against the pair, according to court documents.

On Wednesday, police quickly moved to arrest Lowe and Meyer after Benton County prosecutors filed child sexual exploitation charges.

They’re now being held on $250,000 each.

The felony charges reflect only one victim, though documents mention pictures being found on Lowe’s electronic devices of a second nude girl.

Richland police said in a news release there may be additional victims in this case who have yet to come forward.

Investigators uncovered nearly 45 terabytes of digital evidence, which is still being analyzed. That capacity of digital storage would cover approximately 9 million photos or 22,500 hours of video.

Lowe befriended the girl in the summer of 2013 when she reportedly was going through a difficult period of life. He offered to talk whenever she needed and gave the girl his cellphone number.

Lowe hid his relationship with the girl from his own family, court documents said. He allegedly started raping and physically abusing her when she was a young teen, and continued sexually assaulting her for several years until she went to police.

Documents said the abuse included teaching the girl about submission and using sex toys, whips, ropes and household items on her.

She occasionally was left with bruises on her body.

The girl reported that Lowe took pictures and videos of them together, and made her take pictures of herself.

He forwarded one of the videos that showed the sexual abuse to Meyer, court documents said. The girl said she saw that communication, which included Meyer saying he wanted to do the same, documents said.

Meyer allegedly started raping the girl in 2014, and the two men, when talking about the girl, used a vulgar, slang word that referred to her young age.

Detectives found more than 50 electronic devices when they searched Lowe’s home last October, according to court documents. It reportedly has taken a certified forensic examiner some time to analyze the devices because of encryption used by Lowe.

He was employed as a security consultant for Optiv Security, a cybersecurity company.

The girl told police that Lowe had “bragged about his technological skill, stating that law enforcement would never be able to locate images or videos on his devices,” documents said.

Police also searched Meyer’s home and seized numerous electronic devices. A forensic examination found multiple nude images of the victim, along with “screenshots and memes relating to pedophilia and engaging in sex with children,” documents said.

Lowe is charged with two counts each of second- and third-degree child rape of a teen girl.

He also has one count each of sexual exploitation of a minor, dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and possessing those images.

Five of the counts against him include the aggravating circumstances that he violated a position of trust and that there was a pattern of sexual abuse. Those allegations can add significant time to a potential prison sentence.

Meyer is charged with two counts of second-degree child rape and one count of possessing sexually explicit images of a child.

Court documents say Meyer had been investigated in recent years for other allegations of sexual misconduct relating to minors.

He currently is registered as a Level 2 sex offender. He has a 2016 conviction for second-degree extortion involving sexual motivation, and a 2014 conviction for indecent exposure to a child under the age of 14.

Tri-City Herald archives show Meyer had been a supervisor at a wireless store when he told a female employee she had to have sex with him to keep her job. At his sentencing on the extortion in August 2016, he was ordered to serve six months in jail and do at least three years of sexual deviancy counseling.

Meyer was fired from that job. He told a judge at the time that he had since become employed by his wife to look after their children.

In the indecent exposure case, he was helping another family out and giving their daughter a ride home from school when he exposed himself. He claimed he was sweaty after playing basketball and had “rearranged himself” in his mesh gym shorts, documents show.

Anyone with more information on the child sexual exploitation case is encouraged to contact Detective Sgt. Drew Florence at 509-942-7654 or dflorence@ci.richland.wa.us.

This story was originally published September 25, 2019 at 8:01 PM.