A Lewisburg man has been charged by Morgan County police with soliciting a minor via computer to travel to engage in prohibited sexual activity in the case of a teen who went missing from Berkeley Springs in early August.
Robert D. Cobb, 61, was arrested on August 18 and is being held at the Southern Regional Jail awaiting a hearing in his case.
Cobb has also been charged by Greenbrier County law enforcement with two counts of third-degree sexual assault of a victim less than 16 years old and at least four years younger. Police indicate those alleged crimes took place between August 3 and August 17 of this year.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Morgan County Magistrate Court by Deputy Jesse Hedrick, Cobb was picked up by West Virginia State Police in Lewisburg after a statewide investigation tied his cell phone to a serious of internet chat messages. When police were able to track his whereabouts via the mobile device and responded to his location, they located the missing local teen in a camper trailer roughly two weeks after the minor was reported missing by parents.
During the police investigation, which involved the FBI and officers from multiple police agencies, officers located a profile associated with the teen on a chat website. That account was identifiable, showing a photo of the teen at a home in Berkeley Springs.
Messages sent from that account to other users of the chat website led police to an account associated with Cobb. Some messages allegedly referenced sexual activity and his willingness to pick up the teen from a Morgan County residence. A message thread also indicated he had arrived in Berkeley Springs to pick the minor up.
Police were able to identify the cell phone tied to Cobb’s account through their investigation. Location data associated with that cell phone showed the mobile device traveling northeast from Lewisburg in the direction of I-81 on the date the teen was believed to have left her parent’s home.
According to police statements, Cpl. Hedrick was informed on August 18 that Cobb’s mobile device was in Lewisburg and that West Virginia State Police in that area had located the teen in a camper with Cobb.
During further investigation, police said interviews with the teen supplied them with probable evidence to charge Cobb with using a computer device to solicit a minor to travel to engage in prohibited sexual activity and other charges.
Cobb is being held at the Southern Regional Jail in Raleigh County on a $20,000 bond from Greenbrier County and a $100,000 bond from Morgan County.
Statewide Magistrate Court records also indicate Cobb is facing three separate charges of violating a protective order in Greenbrier County in June of 2024. He has pled not guilty to those charges, which were brought by the Lewisburg Police Department. Cobb was free on personal recognizance bonds in those cases prior to his most recent arrest in August.
