3 charged in disappearance of 13-year-old

Three men, two in Coeur d’Alene and one in Spokane, have been arrested in connection with the disappearance of a 13-year-old Spokane girl on Aug. 7 from Coeur d’Alene City Park.

The girl was found unharmed the next afternoon in Spokane, but police soon learned that she had sex with two men there and two other men in Coeur d’Alene, according to a Coeur d’Alene Police report.

As a result, Joseph D. Fromviller, 24, of Coeur d’Alene was arrested and charged with rape; Matthew P. Burton, 21, of Moscow, Idaho, was charged with three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under 16; and Michael Anderson, 26, of Spokane was charged with second-degree rape of a child, according to police and court records.

The girl spent Sunday, Aug. 7, with her aunt and grandmother at Coeur d’Alene City Beach, but as the family was packing to leave, she went to the restroom, according to police.

She told a detective later that she met three men. The men asked her repeatedly to go with them, and she declined several times and attempted to leave, she told police. When she would leave, one would grab her hand and pull her back so she wouldn’t leave, she told police.

“She said this was not done to hurt her, just so she would not leave,” according to the report. Finally, she agreed to go with the men. At their apartment, she had sex with Burton twice and Fromviller once, according to police.

Then they went to Tubbs Hill, where she had sex with Burton again, according to the police report. Then, she told police, the men left her and she wandered back to City Beach, where she called Anderson in Spokane, who came to pick her up.

She told police she knew she would be safe at Anderson’s. When police asked why she didn’t call her parents, she said it was because she did not want to go home.

Police found her at the apartment based on a tip.

The girl allegedly had sex with Anderson and another male while at their Spokane apartment, but only Anderson was charged because police could show that he knew the girl was under age. According to the police report, the girl never claimed she was forced to have intercourse.

In Idaho, the crime of rape applies to sex with a female under 18 years of age and carries a penalty of not less than a year and up to life in prison.