A former Centre County resident was arrested Tuesday on charges that he repeatedly raped a foster child in his care over a period of more than two years in the State College area.
Tyler W. Fuller, 31, of Somerset County, is charged with first-degree felony counts of rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and unlawful contact with a minor.
A girl told State College and Ferguson Township police investigators that she began living with Fuller’s family in December 2020 and that he raped her for the first time a day before her 13th birthday in July 2021, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by borough police. He allegedly said that if she told anyone he would kill himself, and that she would be placed back into the foster care system.
Fuller raped and sexually assaulted her “on a frequent basis” in the family’s home in Ferguson Township until he divorced in 2023, she told police. The assaults continued when she moved with Fuller to a residence in Boalsburg after the divorce and his biological children stayed with his ex-wife, according to the affidavit.
The girl said that when she refused Fuller’s attempt to sexually assault her in August 2023, he threatened suicide by loading a handgun and putting it to his head, police wrote. She then called her siblings’ foster parents, who came and removed her from the home, according to the affidavit.
Investigators obtained emails Fuller sent the girl during and after the period of the alleged assault, which “revealed repeated inappropriate communication,” according to the affidavit. They included discussions of getting the girl an engagement ring and marrying her, trying to avoid getting caught and how to deceive Children and Youth Services so that they could reunite, police wrote.
Fuller was arraigned on Tuesday by District Judge Gregory Koehle, who denied bail.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 16.
