Facebook pal urges couple to surrender in child porn case
Thursday, September 6, 2012
PORTLAND — A Salem, Ore. couple accused of filming sex acts with their two school-age daughters and trading those videos to people on the East Coast were confronted by a friend on Facebook who threatened to turn them in if they didn't do so themselves.
Salem police arrested the couple Tuesday. A federal indictment accuses them of manufacturing child pornography. The Associated Press is withholding their names to protect the identities of their daughters.
The arrest ended a monthlong search that originated in Virginia for a woman known only as "Jane Doe," who was pictured in sex acts with children. The Department of Homeland Security's investigations team sent out a nationwide news release Aug. 7 with pictures of the woman they were seeking -- the woman they now believe is the female half of the couple.
Other people on Facebook saw the image of the woman and told investigators it was the female half of the couple arrested Tuesday.
Homeland Security spokesman Andrew Munoz said the original release drew a tip from the Pacific Northwest, so agents focused their efforts there. A second round of emails and efforts to drum up tips on social media seemed to work: Someone who knew the couple wrote them a Facebook message late Monday night and said he or she would turn them in.
"That pressured them to go ahead and turn themselves in," Munoz said.
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