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Newsmaker: Teen’s death questions Kik app safety

By May 12, 2016June 19th, 2019No Comments

YORK COUNTY — Police say a man raped a 14-year-old girl he met through a Smartphone app and they’re checking to see whether he had similar contact with others.

The teen from York Co. met 20-year-old Michael Baigert Jr. through Kik, an app where people communicate and send pictures, said Lt. Dennis Ivey.

Investigators say he told the girl he was 16-years-old.

After nearly two weeks of communication, they met on Dorothy Drive on August 27, Ivey stated, and during a walk, they went into woods and that’s where the attack occurred.

The incident was reported to York-Poquson Sheriff’s Office on October 27.

Authorities say they searched Baigert’s Berrywood Road home the next day and arrested him that night.

Baigert Jr. is in the Va. Beach jail charged with rape, object sexual penetration and use of a communication system to facilitate certain offenses involving children.

The girl was raped in a subdivision called Willow Lakes in the Grafton area of York County. Stacey West lives in the neighborhood and has a 15-year-old daughter.

“That’s a shame. All the social medial websites and everything you never know who you’re talking too, who they could be, what they’re doing what their intentions are,” West said.

She intends to talk to her daughter about the assault when she gets home from school.

“I already intend on talking to her and her friends both,” West said.
Dominic Digangi, a 17-year-old Grafton High School student knows about the KIK app but says he has no use for it and prefers to use twitter and facebook.

“You basically meet random people from around your areas. I’m not looking to meet new people and random. I have friends and stuff so I haven’t downloaded it,” Digangi said.