Rochester Man Charged With Stalking, Threatening Female Student-Athletes
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Rochester man is charged with cyber stalking and threatening the lives of at least 50 female athletes across the country.
The United States Attorney's office charged 43-year-old Eric Bolduan on Oct. 3 with three counts of stalking and three counts of using interstate commerce as means to harass and intimidate.
The threats were made between Nov. 28, 2015 and Nov. 14, 2016.
Four female student-athletes at a Colorado college first reported the internet harassment.
Bolduan is accused of downloading photos of the young women on Instagram, and then finding pornographic images of women who bare a resemblance to them.
He would then post the photos to pornographic websites, along with personal information about the students, including their names, schools and contact information.
Bolduan is said to have then emailed the photos to the victims, their family members, coaches, teammates and professors.
He would also threaten to rape and murder the young women in the emails, as well as encourage them to kill themselves.
Bolduan regularly used untraceable and encrypted email services and routers, as well as various fake names, like Adam Rapeu, Jenny Olson and Andrew Smith.
Investigators were finally able to trace the activity to Bolduan, whose Rochester home -- which he shares with his wife -- was searched by investigators on June 7. He admitted to all of the harassment and threats on that same day.
He told an FBI agent in August that he was motivated by "anger and frustration" due to impotence.
Police arrested Bolduan on Oct. 5, and the FBI took him into custody on Oct. 6.
He could face up to 10 years in prison.
