Tech exec, 35, who 'groomed missing Alisa on her secret iPad' is finally arrested

Daily Mail​

30-05-2025

A tech sales executive accused of trying to lure a missing girl across the country for sex has surrendered to police after eight days in hiding.
Matthew Nicholas Menard, 35, allegedly spent months grooming Alisa Petrov, 15, after getting in contact via Instagram through her secret iPad.
He slowly gained her trust and police alleged convinced her to send him nude photos and engage in perverted sexual fantasies before agreeing to meet in person.
Alisa suddenly disappeared from her school in Utah on April 21, and messages between the two revealed they had arranged to meet in Las Vegas.
Police believe they never actually met, but Alisa has not been seen or heard from since she was spotted asking for help to get a bus ticket to Las Vegas.
Menard was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, enticement of a minor, and three counts of criminal solicitation on May 20.
Police earlier refused to say why he wasn't in custody, but late on Wednesday night he finally turned himself in after traveling to Utah from his home in Miami and was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail.
A second man Alisa was talking to, identified by police as William Taylor Glines, 37, from Texas City, Texas, was arrested on May 8 and remains in custody.
South Jordan Police also arrested a third man late on Wednesday, who was allegedly grooming Alisa days before she disappeared.
Samuel Teancum Mitchell, 41, lived in Herriman, Utah, only streets away from Alisa's home in South Jordan, on the edge of Salt Lake City.
He was also thrown in the Salt Lake County Jail and charged with sexual exploitation of a minor.
Mitchell comes from a very large Mormon family originally from North Carolina, and moved to Utah as a child along with his 11 brothers and sisters.
One of his brothers, Abe Mitchell, took his own life on February 24 last year and Mitchell started a fundraiser that collected $8,000 for his funeral costs.
Police allegedly found perverted messages between the pair on Alisa's iPad, exchanged through Discord and Snapchat, according to a search warrant.
Alisa asked Mitchell to 'kidnap' her while she was on a family ski trip, and revealed she was running away from home two days before she went missing.
'IM RUNNING AWAY, please don't contact me,' she wrote at 12.34am on April 19, the search warrant alleged.
Messages between Alisa and Mitchell included her telling him she wanted to be a vlogger when she turned 18, but also allegedly contained graphic descriptions of sexual acts he wanted to do to her when they met in person.
She was only saved from this fate when Mitchell told her they couldn't meet, the affidavit explained.
'Sorry I'm really sick,' Mitchell allegedly wrote. Alisa replied: 'So we meeting?'
Mitchell responded: 'If you want to hear me sneezing and coughing and getting you sick, plus I wouldn't be much fun.'
South Jordan Police requesting the search warrant alleged Alisa called Mitchell 'daddy' and they discussed 'couples twister' and 'sex monopoly' games.
Alisa also requested multiple times for Mitchell to 'kidnap her' and eight days before she ran away sent him locations where she would be, the affidavit alleged.
One of these was the Alta Ski Resort, where Alisa was on a trip with her parents the weekend before she disappeared - returning only hours earlier.
Some of the photos her parents Olga and Nikolai released in the hope of finding her were taken on the same ski trip.
After Mitchell said he was sick, Alisa instead allegedly arranged to meet Menard in Las Vegas while he was there on a business trip, and from there fly to Los Angeles, then his home in Miami.
On April 21, Alisa was dropped off at her school, Canyon Grove Academy, in American Fork, about 32 miles south of Salt Lake City.
But instead of going to class, she bought supplies at a nearby gas station and convinced a man there to drive her to the local train station.
Alisa got off the train in Provo, about 14 miles south of American Fork, and asked multiple people there to help her get a bus ticket to Las Vegas.
Alisa returned from a family trip to Alta Ski Resort in Utah only hours before she disappeared. Some of the photos her parents released were taken on the same ski trip
Menard, an IT sales executive, grew up in Noblesville outside Indianapolis the youngest of four brothers, then moved to Chicago and finally Miami.
But beneath his clean-cut, designer stubbled face was allegedly a depraved desire to sexually abuse young girls.
Police detailed in affidavits the disturbing messages between Alisa and Menard dating back to January 17.
'[Menard] over the course of several months, corresponded with [the teen] for the purpose of soliciting sex, sodomy, and child sex abuse material from the minor,' the affidavit continued.
'[He] discussed in graphic detail his intent to sexually abuse the child. [He] encouraged and engaged with [the teen] all from the state of Florida, where all his substantial ties to the community and resources are.'
Menard's lawyers, Collins Rupp in Bountiful, north of Salt Lake City, did not return calls.
Glines was arrested in Texas City on May 8 and remains in custody charged with aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, attempted aggravated exploitation of a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor, enticement of a minor, and criminal solicitation.
He was also charged by police in Texas with possessing more than 50 child sexual abuse images or videos. He is yet to enter a plea.
The probable cause affidavit detailed disturbing conversations between Glines and Alisa, including how he allegedly convinced he to send nude photos and videos.
'[Alisa] expresses feeling extremely uncomfortable and anxious sending pictures and photos of herself, to the point it made her want to self-harm,' it alleged.
She was so uncomfortable that on one occasion when Glines allegedly threatened to punish her if she refused, she asked for the punishment instead.
He told her to beat herself with a piece of wood or a hairbrush as hard as she could, explaining 'I'm a sadist'.
'I'm just saying if the average person knew I was talking to you they'd want to cut my f**king d**k [off],' he said during another conversation.
Police have not said if any of the three men knew each other.
'[Police] say they cannot guarantee [that Alisa is still alive], but there was no indication that she's not,' Alisa's mother, Olga Petrov, told DailyMail.com.
'They say they still have some leads... but we have no idea what kind of leads, they're not saying anything.'
Olga said she and her husband, Nikolai, were vigilant in protecting their daughter and educated her about the dangers of talking to strangers online.
'We regularly check her phone and there was nothing suspicious. Everything seemed to be normal, just classmates, neighbors,' she said.
'We never thought she could be talking to strangers in this way.'
The worried mother hoped Alisa was just staying away because 'I would assume she's really embarrassed.'
She said Alisa didn't have much money and that she didn't have a coat, even though it was below 40 degrees on some of nights after she went missing.
'So somebody else is either helping her and we don't know who or where... I'm not suspecting the worst,' Olga said.
'That means she's with somebody else and we don't know if it's a good person or a bad person.'
Alisa was very trusting of people and liked to strike up conversations with others in the park while hiking or on family holidays.
'She was always trying to meet people to talk to people, like I mean she was just trusting, and we cautioned her about it all the time to at least to be careful,' her mother said.
'That's just how she is... and they took advantage of her.'
Petrov's desperate family is offering a $20,000 reward for anyone with information on her whereabouts.
They set up a website with a desperate appeal to the teen, insisting she wouldn't be in trouble if she returned.
'Alisa, if you can see this, please know that we love you, we will always love you. We miss you. All of your friends and our friends are very worried too,' her parents wrote.
Police have classified the teen as an endangered runaway.
She is described as standing about 5-foot-3 and weighing about 122 pounds.
Surveillance footage from the gas station showed her wearing a white shirt with darker lettering on the front.