ERIE, Colo. — A woman says the man she met online and dated for a month-and-a-half robbed her of thousands of dollars worth of valuables, tried to pawn them for cash, and then disappeared. Police have now issued a warrant for his arrest.
“I let him into my world completely and I was completely betrayed,” Michelle Cohagan said.
She met Joshua Law on the site Plenty of Fish. They dated for a few weeks and became close, with Law spending a lot of time at her Erie home. One night, Cohagan noticed that two of her digital cameras and her roommate’s GoPro camera went missing. A few days later, Law disappeared.
“I haven’t seen or heard from him,” she said.
Law originally told her he had plans to close on a house nearby. Then he claimed he had to fly across the country for a family emergency. The realtor of the home was the one to tell Cohagan that Law wasn’t actually buying the home. That’s when she noticed even more things were gone.
“My grandmother’s wedding ring, a mother’s ring, pearls my father had given me,” she said.
“She had about $7,500 worth of items between her and her roommate that had been stolen,” Erie Police Department Commander Michael Haefele said.
Now Erie PD are involved. They’ve been able to track Law and the missing items to multiple local pawn shops.
“We were able to get a signed arrest warrant for the suspect in the case,” Haefele said.
“He had been taking and pawning my things since pretty much two weeks in,” Cohagan added. “I think he’s a sociopath. I think he’s a con artist.”
She said that she’s spoken to at least two other women who say they dated Law. The stories of falling in love and being ripped off were similar.
Police do not know where Law is at the moment. The warrant for his arrest is out, and local towns and law enforcement agencies are aware. Meanwhile, they have been able to locate some of Cohagan’s things including her cameras, expensive purses, and a watch. Her heirloom jewelry is still missing.
“Kind of seems like I’ll never see it again,” she said.
Cohagan now wants her story to be a warning to others.
“I don’t want this to ever happen to anyone else,” she said.
If you have any information about this case or know where Joshua Law might be, contact Erie Police.