Feb. 15—By SAMANTHA PERRY

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — A Mercer County man was arrested Wednesday after sending threatening text messages to a romantic rival showing himself in the woods with a gun and implying that he was waiting to do harm, West Virginia State Police officials said.

At 9:30 a.m. Wednesday a man sent a threatening text to a family member of a local juvenile showing him holding a photograph of himself standing in the woods outside the home bearing a gun with a text message reading, "I'm waiting," Sgt. J.E. Kincaid, of the West Virginia State Police Princeton Detachment, said.

The message was sent to the juvenile's father, and both the father and daughter believed the man to be outside the house.

"He was showing pictures of himself in the woods with the gun," Kincaid said.

"He sent the text message to the girl's father," Kincaid said. "The father notified the girl that there might be a subject outside the house."

As the State Police responded to the juvenile's location, the man continued to send text messages.

"We went to the residence where he (the suspect) was staying on Old Athens Road and located him in the woods with the rifle he was showing in the pictures," Kincaid said. "We arrested him without incident."

Steven Dye, 63, of Princeton, was arrested on terrorist threats and violation of a protection order, Kincaid said.

Kincaid said there is no indication the juvenile was the target of the threats. "The target was her father."

The juvenile's parent's are separated, Kincaid said, and the subject is the mother's boyfriend.

Trooper D.A. Miller is the investigating officer on the case.

— Contact Samantha Perry at sperry@bdtonline.com.

— Contact Samantha Perry at sperry@bdtonline.com.