Christopher Gravenmier, 31, of Kemmerer. Booking photo.

A Kemmerer resident has been taken into custody by police on pending charges of multiple counts of sexual abuse of a minor and kidnapping. According to court documents, Christopher Steven Gravenmier, 31, was arrested on April 22 and is currently being held in the Lincoln County Detention Center on a $375,000 cash surety bond. According to the Lincoln County Attorney’s Office, Gravenmier waved his right to a preliminary hearing, which had been set for April 30, and is now waiting a date to be scheduled for his arraignment in District Court where he will enter a plea.

According to court documents, Gravenmier began messaging a 12-year-old girl from Oklahoma on Snapchat and eventually began sending her explicit content. He then drove from Kemmerer to the girl’s home. The girl later told detectives that she feared Gravenmier would hurt her family if she didn’t go with him, so she snuck out of her bedroom window and got in his vehicle. Gravenmier then brought the girl back to his home in Kemmerer where she was required to participate in multiple sexual acts with him.

Court documents state that when Gravenmier saw social media posts about the girl being reported as missing, he devised a plan to not get caught. He drove to Wamssuter, Wyoming where he dropped the girl off and went to a gas station. He instructed the girl to walk up to him at the gas pump, tell him that she had been kidnapped and ask to use his phone. The girl did as instructed and when she was given the phone she called her grandmother and authorities were immediately notified. Upon questioning by authorities, the girl collaborated the story with Gravenmier, saying that she had never seen him before and asked to use his phone. The phone was confiscated and Gravenmier was allowed to leave as there was not enough evidence at the time to charge him.

However, the girl later informed an FBI agent during a subsequent interview that Gravenmier was the person who had taken her. She also described in detail the multiple sexual acts that took place at his Kemmerer home. The Kemmerer Police Department was then notified, and Gravenmier was shortly afterwards taken into custody by a KPD officer.

Charges against Gravenmier include four counts of Sexual Abuse of a Minor in the First Degree, one count of Sexual Abuse of a Minor in the Second Degree, one count of Kidnapping Confinement and one count of Sexual Assault in the Second Degree. The four counts of First Degree Sexual Abuse of Minor carry a prison sentence of 25-50 years each.

The girl has since returned to her home in Oklahoma. Court proceeding dates against Gravenmier are pending.