By Sabina Rosu-Urdes

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- A 26-year-old man is behind bars after allegedly abusing several juvenile males. Now, police have reasons to believe there may be even more victims than what they have discovered so far.

The suspect, Joshua Thomas Friar, is a former worker of an area private treatment facility for emotionally disturbed children. Friar requested to be a foster parent for several children he met at the treatment facility, and some of them were placed with him. On November 10th, a juvenile male reported allegations of sex abuse to a DHS worker regarding his stay with Friar, which prompted a police investigation.

The investigation revealed evidence that Friar was allegedly abusing the children who were placed into his home as foster children. Detectives arrested Friar at his residence in Springfield on November 14th. At that time, DHS also removed three juvenile males, ages 7-16, who were living with Friar at the time. Friar was lodged in Lane County Jail on multiple sex-related charges with bail set at nearly $2 million.

During the investigation, OSP detectives identified a second juvenile male victim of Friar's alleged abuse. Since Friar had been a Jasper Mountain direct care staff member for three years, as well as a volunteer for Big Brother/Big Sister, police have reasons to believe there may be additional victims related to this ongoing investigation.

Anyone with information to help in this investigation is asked to call OSP Northern Command Center dispatch at 1-800-452-7888.