Wed. Oct 30th, 2024
An Osage Beach man is now facing Child Pornography charges following an investigation by the Camden County Sheriff’s Office and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
According to a release, the case started earlier in June when a cell phone user in Camden County uploaded images, flagged as child porn, to a Verizon iCloud account.
Detectives say the images were graphic and depicted prepubescent children engaged in sexual activities.
On Wednesday, Deputies served a search warrant at the home of 27-year-old Manuel PC Fuentes at his home at the 4000 block of Scout Street in Osage Beach.
They say Fuentes admitted to receiving, viewing, and being in possession of child pornography.
He was taken to the Camden County Jail, faces eight counts of the Class D Felony of Possession of Child Pornography and is being held on a $150,000 surety bond.
Numerous other agencies assisted in the investigation and you can see the full report below:
Release:
In early June, detectives from the Camden County Sheriff’s Office received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) indicating a cell phone user in Camden County uploaded still images of suspected child pornography to a Verizon iCloud storage account.
The images provided through NCMEC were graphic and depicted prepubescent children engaged in sexual activities. Detectives applied for and were granted a court ordered subpoena for the Verizon account owner’s information. Upon receipt of this information, detectives continued their investigation and applied for and were granted a court ordered search warrant for the content of the account holder’s iCloud storage account. Detectives then executed that search warrant and verified the metadata assigned to the suspected child pornography matched the metadata assigned to images uploaded to the iCloud storage account through the user’s cell phone.
On June 28th, detectives responded to a residence in the 4000 block of Scout Street in Osage Beach, and interviewed 27-year-old Manuel PC Fuentes, the owner of the iCloud storage account and user of the Verizon cell phone. Fuentes admitted to receiving, viewing, and being in possession of child pornography.
Detectives arrested Fuentes at the residence and transported him to the Camden County Adult Detention Facility. Fuentes is charged with eight counts of the Class D Felony of Possession of Child Pornography and is being held on a $150,000 surety bond.
Camden County Detective Sergeant Jeremiah Burnett said, “The detectives worked hard on this case and put in a lot of hours. This case is a prime example of how important it is for us to maintain relationships with our sister agencies including the Osage Beach Police Department, the Camden County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, NCMEC, the Lake Area Cyber-Crimes Task Force, and the Missouri Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.”
A reminder that these charges are merely allegations of wrongdoing. All suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.