PRESS RELEASE
A24-10499 Luring Arrest
June 6, 2024
On May 31, 2024, the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office received information from the Woodland School District that a male subject had attempted to lure a 12-year-old student. Deputies contacted the student, who reported that a male subject approached her at her school bus stop on S. Cloverdale Rd and repeatedly tried to talk her into getting into his vehicle. The male reportedly claimed there were two scary men nearby who were approaching her, though there was no one else seen in the area. Deputies confirmed the student did not know the suspect and her parents had not given anyone permission to take her in a vehicle.
On June 4, 2024, the student told her bus driver that she had just seen the male suspect drive past their school bus in the suspect vehicle. Deputies used school bus video to determine that the suspect vehicle was a white Toyota truck with a cargo rack. Deputies located a matching vehicle on June 5, 2024, at a residence in the 2200 block of S. Cloverdale Rd. Deputies contacted the vehicle owner, identified as James Lee Porter, 57, of Woodland. The student was able to identify Porter as the male who had contacted her, and confirmed his vehicle was the one he was driving during the incident.
Porter was arrested for Luring and booked into the Cowlitz County Jail.
The Sheriff’s Office is sharing a picture of the suspect vehicle, and requests anyone with further information about this incident, or other similar contacts, to contact the Sheriff’s Office at 360-577-3092, regarding case A24-10499.