Who is Dan Bowling? Florida golfer sex chats with investigator posing as 15-year-old girl, travels to meet 'her'
LAKE MARY, FLORIDA: A professional golfer got arrested on Thursday, May 6 in Orlando, Florida after investigators stated that he was sexting an investigator posing as a 15-year-old girl.
Daniel Bowling, 26, is facing several charges including obscene communication, traveling to meet with a minor, and attempted lewd and lascivious molestation. According to the investigators, Bowling contacted the decoy through an online chat platform at the beginning of last month. Detectives have said that his conversations with the person who was imitating to be a teenager "turned sexual in nature within the first 24 hours and intensified quickly."
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Detectives, accompanied by officers from the Orlando Police Department's Special Enforcement Division, arrested Bowling without incident when they said he arrived to meet up with the minor girl, he thought he was talking to. It is currently unclear whether he has obtained a lawyer.
The “dangerous online predator” got arrested in Orlando “as he arrived to meet up with the decoy,” police said. “Unfortunately, there are potentially hundreds of predators like Mr Bowling online,” Jennifer Wing of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force reportedly said. “I hope news of today’s arrest encourages parents to be more proactive in monitoring their children’s lives online.”
According to Yahoo Sports, Bowling has not competed professionally since 2016. Apart from that, he is not in the Official World Golf Rankings. However, his Instagram is filled with golf snaps, and his bio reads: "Pro golfer travelling PGA Tour events one Monday at a time," Last week, he shared a video which showed him out on the links beneath a caption that read: "Down in North Carolina for the Wells Fargo Monday qualifying. Been putting in the work last few weeks with my guys."
According to RAINN, one in 9 girls and 1 in 53 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault at the hands of an adult. Also, among the victims, 82% are females under 18 female. Females ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault. Lauren Kids reported that there are more than 42 million survivors of sexual abuse in the US and that 95% of sexual abuse is preventable through education.