The Beating of Raymond Frolander

It was a warm summer afternoon in Daytona Beach, Florida, in July of 2014, when a father was horrified to walk into his 11-year-old son’s bedroom to find him being molested. The perpetrator was 18-year-old Raymond Frolander, a family friend.

Shortly thereafter, the father called police to inform them that he had beat the molester to a pulp. “I just walked in on a grown man molesting [name redacted]. And I got him in a bloody puddle for you right now, officer. Send an ambulance. He is going to need one,” he said.¹

When questioned further, the father said: “He stood up and his pants were around his ankles and nothing else needed to be said. I did whatever I got a right to do except I didn’t kill him.” The operator asked the father if the molester was still unconscious to which he replied: “Yes… I hit hard, sir.”

The operator then asked if any weapons had been used to which the 35-year-old father responded: “My foot and my fist. He is nice and knocked out on the floor for you, I dragged him into the living room.” He added that Frolander was a “damn lucky boy that I love my God.” Presumably he was alluding to the fact that if he was not a religious man, he would’ve killed him.

Frolander was a family friend who had been entrusted to babysit the young son. The father told the 911 operator that he “loved him up until 15 minutes ago.”² According to the boy’s grandmother, Frolander had been family to them. “I’m hurt because he was family. He was like our family and it hurts that he did this,” she said.

The father later explained that he left the home momentarily to get some food. When he returned, he said he heard a strange noise coming from his son’s bedroom. Upon opening the door, he said he found Frolander with his pants pulled down, sexually abusing his son by performing a sex act on his son. When the son was questioned, he said he had been playing video games but when his father left to get food, Frolander took him to his bedroom where he molested him and forced him to fondle him.

The young boy also told investigators that Frolander had been sexually abusing him for around three years and that he had threatened him that “terrible things” would happen if he told anybody about the abuse.

Frolander was taken to Halifax Medical Centre where he was treated for his wounds. Following the arrest of Frolander, he confessed to molesting the boy for three years. His mugshot went viral; he was left with swollen lips and eyes and a bruised face.

Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said that the father did what any father would’ve done and announced that he wouldn’t be charging him. “Dad was acting like a dad. I don’t see anything we should charge the dad with,” he said. “You have an 18-year-old who has clearly picked his target, groomed his target and had sex with the victim multiple times.”³

Frolander pleaded no contest to lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim younger than 12 which is punishable by up to life in prison. He received a 25 year sentence and upon his release, he will be listed as a sexual predator and will be on sex offender probation and electronically monitored for the rest of his life. “He’s going to learn in the next 25 years why I let him live,” said the victim’s father.

Later, the father faced condemnation after posting a photo of his son – who was unidentified in the media to protect him – along with a gofundme in an effort to raise money for his therapy. The gofundme initially asked for $1 million but was later changed to $100,000 before being deleted completely.

This led many feeling as though his son was being exploited for money. “This is unbelievable. The stigma that goes with being sexually abused is terrible,” said Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood.⁴

1. International Business Times, 19 July, 2019 – “Police Chief Defends Actions of Father who Beat Son’s Sex Attacker Unconscious”
2. Charleston Examiner, 20 July, 2014 – “Father Beats Babysitter Unconscious”
3. International Business Times, 19 July, 2014 – “Father Beats Raymond Frolander Unconscious After Catching Him Sexually Abusing his Son”
4. Charleston Examiner, 22 July, 2014 – “Man Who Beat Babysitter Unconscious Posts Abused Son Photo, Asks for Donations”