Twenty-nine Year Old Neil Rodreick Poses as 7th Grader

Now Charged as Sex Offender

I was appalled, yet somehow not completely surprised when I read the article Arrested Development from the Phoenix New Times online. In this article, a 29 year-old man was found to be posing as a 7^th grader, enrolled at a small junior high school just north of Prescott, AZ. He had been attending the school for almost 2 months before anyone noticed that something was wrong. Teachers noticed his older appearance, but were not alarmed by it since he was using makeup, hats, and glasses to hide his face. Apparently, the school secretary was the first of several small schools across the country where the man had enrolled, to take a closer look at his paperwork. She noticed that there were two different birthdays listed for him on the documents, and that his birth certificate said he was born in Germany, yet it listed the weight/height in pounds and centimeters instead of using the European metric system. They began to suspect that he was a kidnapped child living under a false identity, and police went to the house to investigate.

They found the boy living in a trailer with two older convicted sex offenders, Lonnie Stiffler and Robert Snow, who were also convinced that "Casey" was a 12 year old boy. The story came out that they had met him on the internet and taken him into their custody because his parents had abandoned him. There was loads of child pornography in the house, and they had both been having sexual relations with "Casey". Little did they know, they had been scammed by the 29 year old Neil Rodreick. Police Officer Diskin, who questioned the men, reported that "Stiffler did not appear embarrassed about having sex with a 12 year old, but he appeared ashamed that he had had sex with a 29 year old". The motives for the scam were unclear, but the men had bought "Casey" presents such as a flat screen TV and video game system which were in his room. Police also found a video of Neil engaging in sexual acts with a young boy in a hotel room.