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00:00The following program documents real law enforcement investigations of child sexual predators.
00:05This deeply disturbing content may be triggering for some viewers.
00:09Please watch with care.
00:11Excuse me. I'm sorry, sir. I'm very nervous right now.
00:14Next, Detective Tony Godwin hunts a high school teacher caught sexting a student.
00:21Do you admit to knowing that he was a kid in high school?
00:24At a certain point, it came out.
00:28The team confronts a predator with twisted ideas about love.
00:34And she tells you right off the bat that she's 14.
00:37Yes. You know, we've always been taught sex is love.
00:40And detectives join forces to trap a predator targeting both boys and girls.
00:48Bitch, dude.
00:52A team of police professionals in North Dallas has one goal.
00:56Take down online predators before they harm a real child.
01:03Child predators are everywhere.
01:05Online predators pose the biggest danger to America's children today.
01:10Kids are being targeted at an alarming rate.
01:13This team is opening its case files for the first time to show you how it tracks them down.
01:21All right, it's coming this way.
01:22And brings them to justice by any means necessary.
01:26Candle card.
01:29This is Detective Tony Godwin and his team is...
01:33The Predator Hunters.
01:38Pulling in the parking lot now.
01:42Tony and his team wait outside an apartment complex for a dangerous predator.
01:48Nervous?
01:49Yeah.
01:50Well, don't be.
01:51I mean, it's gonna be fine.
01:53He didn't think any of this was even illegal.
01:55I didn't know that was a legal issue.
01:57I didn't think sex was a big deal.
02:00He thinks it's romance, but it could be the biggest mistake of his life.
02:08Every now and then, I encounter a predator that's so brazen, I have to act fast to take him down.
02:13Like this guy, Sathaniel Hampstead.
02:16He was determined to meet a child for a sexual encounter.
02:19That made him a number one priority for my team and I to take him off the streets.
02:35On September 18th of 2014, I'm online using an undercover profile named Brittany.
02:40And I'm on Craigslist.
02:43Craigslist is a normal place where people buy, sell trades, rent houses, that kind of stuff.
02:48But there is a darker, devious side to Craigslist.
02:51There is a segment of there where predators like to hang out and that's really the personal ads.
02:57As the posting party, you do have some degree of anonymity.
03:02So there is that appeal to it from the predator standpoint.
03:05I start to peruse some of the ads to see if anything catches my attention.
03:09And sure enough, I find a candidate.
03:14The ad title is, any freshman girls want to come over?
03:18And it's followed by kind of a sexual solicitation.
03:22Hey, I'm bored and I'm off work for a few days.
03:25I want you to just come over and let's get naughty.
03:29Please send me a pic.
03:30The younger, the better.
03:35The freshman reference in the title of his ad could mean the first year of somebody in college.
03:41But then it follows up with, the younger, the better.
03:44And that really solidified for me that his opener relates to high school.
03:49So ninth grade.
03:50That's like 14 or 15 years of age.
03:54And that's what I believe this guy is looking for.
03:57He's very clear with what his intentions are.
04:00And I am very willing to reply.
04:02Hey, I'm a freshman.
04:04I'll be 15 in November.
04:06Is that cool?
04:07Right from the beginning, I make it very clear that I'm underage.
04:10Most people at this point would just completely walk away.
04:13Not this guy.
04:18The speed at which this guy's moving is really fast.
04:22He's talking in a sexual way.
04:27The reality is I'm a fake profile.
04:30And what could be happening is he's talking to real kids this way.
04:33And that's a big issue for me.
04:41I've got to get this guy identified.
04:45So the communications continue.
04:47I can't actually send my own photo because I don't look very much like a 14-year-old girl.
04:52But a coworker who is a detective in the department has given me permission to use photos of her when
04:59she was 13 and 14.
05:01This is an opportunity for me.
05:04I'm trying to gather intel on this guy.
05:09So I need to see what he looks like.
05:10So I do send him a photograph.
05:17His response is wildly inappropriate and morally wrong.
05:24And almost immediately, he comes back with two photos of himself.
05:30He looks like a creep.
05:32This has to be the real guy.
05:33Like, who would use a photo like this if it wasn't really them?
05:38So as my Britney profile, I tell him he's really cute.
05:42And he's really enamored by that.
05:45He tells me I'm about to take a bath.
05:51And then he sends me this sexually graphic image.
05:56It's illegal to send obscene material to a child.
06:01That's really disturbing.
06:05Kind of blows me away with what he says.
06:10I mean, what is this guy thinking?
06:13It feeds my drive to want to get this guy into custody.
06:18At this point, we've been on Craigslist the whole time.
06:20But then, he coughs up a phone number.
06:24I send a text message.
06:28And then, I get the break I need.
06:30He gives me the most valuable piece of information I could ever ask for.
06:34His real name.
06:41I've never heard that before.
06:43This guy's gonna be easy to find, I hope.
06:46Tony calls in backup to track Sathaniel, criminal intelligence specialist, Detective Mark Castile.
06:54Normally, it's quite difficult to locate a Texas driver's license based on a first name.
06:59But Sathaniel is a very uncommon name.
07:02I get a hit on a Sathaniel Winston Hampston.
07:07A white male, 23 years old, and he lives in Dublin, Texas.
07:12The city is three and a half hours drive from Brittany's location in North Dallas.
07:17And I was able to positively identify Sathaniel as the same person that had been contacting Tony.
07:24We're moving fast.
07:26We've only been talking four hours, and I've already got this guy positively identified.
07:29This is great.
07:32I need Seth to make his intentions very clear about not only meeting, but the fact that the meeting is
07:37going to be sexual in nature.
07:41But then, he throws me a curve ball.
07:44It's the message I dread.
07:48He wants confirmation that the person he's talking to on text is, in fact, a real kid.
07:55There's a real sense of urgency.
07:56And if I don't act fast, he's going to get really sus and probably pull away.
08:01To make the play work, Tony turns to Patrol Corporal Amanda Weatherford.
08:07He asked her to call Sathaniel.
08:10I've known Tony about nine years.
08:12I met him in a class that he was teaching.
08:15I am nervous that he is asking me to make a phone call right now.
08:19But I think of, what if that was my child?
08:22Very disturbing that they're trying to meet a child for sexual gratification.
08:29The challenge, really, is just to make yourself sound as much like a 14-year-old girl as you can.
08:36Like little giggles or like you're just unsure.
08:39Just goofy kid stuff.
08:41If it starts to get weird or uncomfortable or crazy, all she's got to do is say,
08:46my grandfather's about to be here, and that'll get us out of it.
09:01My adrenaline is very high.
09:04I am trying to make sure that I don't say the wrong things or reference something that they haven't been
09:11talking about.
09:12It sucks being broke, doesn't it?
09:15Oh, yeah.
09:17Well, I'm not going to get a job, so.
09:20Uh, you don't need a job.
09:22Yet.
09:24Yeah?
09:25Since I'm not old enough yet?
09:26Yeah, you're not.
09:28Legally, isn't it?
09:30Man.
09:32When he says, you don't need a job yet, you're not old enough, this is really key evidence for us.
09:38He's now acknowledging on tape that he knows this is a real kid, and that works for me.
09:44Well, hey, let me let you go. He just pulled in the driveway.
09:47Oh, okay.
09:48Okay.
09:49Bye.
09:55You did a great job. That was fantastic.
09:57So the phone call went off perfectly. The next day, Hampstens suggested meeting in person.
10:07He suggests the meeting. He's coming here for the purpose of a sexual act of a 14-year-old girl,
10:12and I have a case on this guy now.
10:14So the game is on. Now I got to put a team together to make it happen. It's takedown time.
10:23Detective Tony Godwin sets up the trap for child predator Seth Daniel Hampsten.
10:29I give Hampsten an address of where my character, Brittany, lives.
10:33But what he doesn't know is that this is a location I use for takedowns.
10:43So I'm at the takedown location hidden in a covert vehicle where I have a clear line of sight of
10:48where I've asked Hampsten to park.
10:50And I've got covert people strewn all over the place.
10:54Detective Castile, his job is to let me know when he gets eyes on Hampsten pulling into the location.
11:00It's Monday, September 22nd at 1134.
11:04Detective Castile, a possible traveler coming this morning.
11:08He's come over here to meet a miner to have sex with her.
11:15I mean, in a worst case scenario, he doesn't show up. He gets cold feet and backs out.
11:21Running checks, he does own a red geotracker.
11:25Supposedly, that's what he will be driving when he comes into the complex here.
11:30So Hampsten is texting as he's driving to the location.
11:34It makes me feel disgusted that I have to go through and tolerate this kind of talk.
11:40But if I don't do it, the chances of him finding a real kid are very high.
11:46Pulling in the parking lot now.
11:49One of the surveillance units outside the complex has said that the red Ford truck is pulling in.
11:56Our predator has arrived.
12:00To the right of the tree.
12:02To the right of the tree.
12:03It's a red geotracker with a soft top.
12:06Now that I have a visual on Hampsten, everything's on my shoulders.
12:10We are ready to pound.
12:11But then, a curveball.
12:14Be advised, we have a maintenance man walking through with a ball cap behind his vehicle right now.
12:20We're going to have to let this civilian get out of the takedown area.
12:22The last thing I want is for a civilian to get hurt.
12:26As soon as that civilian gets out of our scene, it's go time.
12:38Forearm guys all the way around him.
12:40Hampsten is pulled out of his vehicle.
12:41He's handcuffed.
12:42He doesn't resist.
12:45This guy drove three and a half hours to come and meet a 14-year-old child to have sex.
12:54Seeing him arrested and in handcuffs, man, that makes me feel good.
13:00Detectives search Hampsten's car after his arrest.
13:04And they find a box of condoms in the passenger footwell.
13:13Why don't you tell me why you think you're sitting here today?
13:16They said it's because I was texting that girl.
13:18And what girl are we talking about?
13:20Her name's Brittany.
13:22How did you meet Brittany?
13:24Internet. I had a Craigslist.
13:27So you guys met via the Craigslist?
13:29Yeah.
13:29And she sent me an email.
13:31Okay.
13:32What was in the email?
13:34She asked me if, she told me if she's 14, she's going to be 15.
13:38Okay.
13:39She told me that.
13:40And she asked if that was okay, and I said, yeah, that's fine.
13:42Going into an interview, these predatory types, I expect them to lie to me.
13:47But Hampsten, he didn't do that at all.
13:50I mean, he told me everything.
13:52And she tells you right off the bat that she's 14?
13:55Yes.
13:55And you don't see that there's a problem with that?
13:57I didn't know that was a legal issue.
13:59I didn't think sex is a big deal.
14:01You know, we've always been taught sex is love and it's fun and all this.
14:05So the one thing that did shock me is that he made a claim that he didn't think any of
14:09this was even illegal.
14:10I don't believe that he actually believes this.
14:13I would venture to say you did know it's illegal or there wouldn't be messages about your mom's not home,
14:21right?
14:21Right.
14:22Let's be honest.
14:23Okay.
14:24You know it's illegal to have sex with a kid.
14:26Yeah.
14:27Yes?
14:27Yes.
14:27Yes.
14:28Do you regret that you got caught?
14:31No.
14:31I don't.
14:32Actually, after getting caught, I was sitting in that jail cell.
14:35I was just thinking, wow, I could have done that if they didn't stop me.
14:41I just first had my Bible with me.
14:43I know that sounds terrible.
14:44I'm going to meet a little girl for sex and he won this Bible.
14:49I'm glad to have been the guy that put him away.
14:57Hanson will be a registered sex offender until September of 2044.
15:01Texas will be a safer place because of this.
15:06Hi.
15:07Is everything all right?
15:08Yes, sir.
15:092018.
15:10Detective Tony Godwin confronts a high school teacher with the evidence that he sexted a student.
15:16Excuse me.
15:17I'm sorry, sir.
15:18I'm very nervous right now.
15:21He is like, I'm so busted.
15:24This drama teacher fails to grasp the seriousness of what he's done.
15:30I'm in a play that's in a final dress rehearsal tonight.
15:33That's in the back of my mind as well.
15:37This guy Edgen, he's trusted by his community and he's got access to kids.
15:41This guy's a disgusting pervert.
15:43I got to get my hands on him fast.
15:51I got to get my hands on them.
15:53I got to get my hands on him.
15:55I got to get my hands on the phone.
15:58On April 16th of 2018, I received a phone call from a really frantic and distressed mother.
16:05Her and her husband tell me that over the course of the past month, they've noticed their son has been
16:09really preoccupied with his phone.
16:11His phone's been blowing up, and that's just really unusual for him.
16:16So the father takes a look at his son's phone,
16:19and he notices a large amount of very sexually explicit messages.
16:26The mom tells me that she's not sure if she should be bothering me at all
16:29because her son is 17, which is a legal age of consent in Texas,
16:33and so we don't even know at this point if anything illegal has happened.
16:36It really needs to be looked into a little bit further.
16:41For the purpose of this story, I'm going to call this young man Christopher,
16:44even though that's not his real name.
16:46So Christopher told his father that the messages came from someone that he met on Snapchat
16:51by the name of Rob.
16:52After a week of chatting, they moved over to regular SMS messaging.
16:59The parents provided me with screenshots of the messages they saw,
17:03and they're really upset.
17:05So the parents asked Christopher for more information about this guy Rob,
17:09and he explains that he's about 19 or 20 years of age.
17:14But now the parents find something shocking.
17:16Rob has sent their son a nude image.
17:21The parents take away their son's phone,
17:24and they monitor all the messages that are coming in
17:26and see in the messages a photograph of the lower portion of Rob's face,
17:33which is a gray beard.
17:36They know right away that he's not 19 or 20.
17:39They're really concerned.
17:41Christopher's mom takes the phone number that Rob is communicating from,
17:45she pops it into a search engine,
17:47she comes up with a full name,
17:49Robert Edgen.
17:51They find a social media page,
17:53and what they see is a 48-year-old man
17:55living a, what seems like a normal, happy life to them.
17:59But they find something absolutely shocking.
18:05He's a teacher at a local high school.
18:09The parents are in complete disbelief
18:12that their teenage son is in some kind of a relationship with a teacher.
18:20Detective Godwin is investigating drama teacher Robert Edgen,
18:25who has been caught grooming a student online.
18:28At this point, the parents don't know that anything illegal has actually taken place,
18:32but I can assure them that a crime has been committed.
18:35The law in Texas is very clear.
18:37It's that power balance between the educator and the student
18:40that leads to sexual exploitation.
18:42Edgen is a teacher and Christopher is a 17-year-old student,
18:47and therefore it makes it illegal.
18:50What's prevalent in my mind is the fact that I've got this educator
18:53who is actively employed in a school with access to real children.
18:58Now I have to act super fast.
19:02I meet with Christopher to interview him.
19:04He tells me that Edgen sent him 10 nude images of himself
19:08and one video where he was pleasuring himself in the video.
19:14The simple exchange of the images and videos described by Christopher,
19:19that alone is a crime.
19:21Detective Godwin brings in forensic expert Robert Galladay
19:25to extract data from Christopher's phone.
19:28As I'm going through the phone,
19:30I do find some things that are concerning to me.
19:34Edgen asks,
19:35Are you on spring break?
19:37Edgen tells Christopher he should come over tonight.
19:42And Christopher replies,
19:44I can't stay the night.
19:45My parents won't let me.
19:48It's very obvious to me that the adult
19:51clearly knows this is a 17-year-old child
19:54that he's talking to
19:55that lives at home with his parents.
19:59It's not even clear to me at this point
20:00that Christopher sees himself as a victim.
20:03But grooming is the process that these predators use
20:06so that the child believes that nothing's ever going wrong.
20:12Christopher tells me that Edgen asked him
20:14to produce nude images
20:17and that he did comply with this.
20:19That's an entirely new charge.
20:21That's called production of child pornography.
20:24It's still a crime for imagery
20:26to be produced, shared, or transmitted back and forth
20:30if you're under the age of 18.
20:35It's reached a really serious level.
20:37I have a strong feeling that Edgen
20:39is probably communicating with others
20:40that are juveniles, not just Christopher.
20:43I've got enough to get an arrest warrant,
20:45and I'm going to surprise Edgen
20:46by showing up at his school
20:47just to see what he has to say.
20:52myself and Detective Galladay,
20:54we drive to the high school,
20:55and they have Edgen escorted from his room.
21:00Hi.
21:01Is everything all right?
21:02Yes, sir.
21:03Hey, I'm Tony Gowdlin.
21:05Do you mind having a seat right there?
21:06Brandon Porter.
21:07Hi.
21:08This is Brandon Porter.
21:09This is Robert Galladay with the department.
21:12I want to have a conversation with you
21:14about a case that I have working.
21:15This guy looks scared to death.
21:17He looks like he's in a puke.
21:18Yes, he really does.
21:20I really have to tread carefully and methodically.
21:24I do my very best not to spook him.
21:28We start to talk about his social media
21:30and what platforms that he is operating on.
21:34Facebook's my main one.
21:35What else?
21:35I don't really use the others.
21:37I've dabbled in them.
21:38What do you have?
21:39Instagram.
21:41Edgen is cooperative, but he's cautious.
21:44He is limited in what he's telling me.
21:46Anything else?
21:47Do you think of it?
21:49I have a Snapchat.
21:50Snapchat.
21:51It's interesting that he mentions his Snapchat last
21:54because that is the one he was communicating on.
21:57Do you know your vanity name on there?
21:59Oh, goodness.
22:00I don't use it.
22:01I actually want to delete it.
22:04How convenient.
22:05He wants to be able to delete it.
22:06Right.
22:07We're not even a minute into this,
22:09and we can already know he's lying to us.
22:11Do you have it on your phone?
22:12Yes.
22:13No.
22:13Do you mind looking up your name on your phone?
22:15What a stumble, right?
22:16I'm like, hey, is it on your phone?
22:18He's like, yeah.
22:19No.
22:19Um, yeah, let me look at that.
22:21Just a second.
22:22I'll, uh...
22:23He's getting really nervous.
22:24He's fumbling around, and he's almost acting like he doesn't know what the passcode is.
22:29I was trying to sit there and watch him, what numbers he punched in,
22:32so that I knew once we seized the phone,
22:34then I would have the passcode to get in the phone.
22:36I'm more concerned that he's going to do something to delete the device or wipe the device.
22:42Excuse me.
22:43I'm sorry, sir.
22:44I'm very nervous right now.
22:45I don't really understand.
22:46I'm going to explain everything to you.
22:47What this is about.
22:48And then that's when I reached over and kind of grabbed his phone away from him.
22:54All right.
22:55Oh, sorry.
22:56Here, I'm sorry.
22:56If he goes into panic mode,
22:57he's like, wait.
22:59Puts his hand out to try to get it back.
23:07Detective Godwin interviews teacher Robert Edgen.
23:10Now his team holds Edgen's phone.
23:13The truth begins to surface.
23:15I'm just going to hold it for you.
23:17I'm not that search, and I'm just going to hold it.
23:18Bring it down.
23:19Robert, look at me.
23:20Okay, listen.
23:21I mean, at this point, this dude's against the ropes, right?
23:23I'm going to deliberately avoid talking about Christopher.
23:26I want to keep it open-ended and just see what he reveals.
23:30I know because I've seen some communications between you and a kid.
23:35Okay?
23:35Those conversations are sexual in nature,
23:40and I've seen some images that were transmitted back and forth.
23:45Does that refresh your memory with what I'm here to talk to you about?
23:48Yes.
23:52Ultimately, he says yes and acknowledges the fact that he did do this.
23:57Now I need to dig further and see what else he's going to tell me about.
24:01Do you know who the person is that I'm talking about?
24:05Or are there so many of the conversations that are ongoing that it's kind of a...
24:10Ongoing is rather small.
24:12I mean, I couldn't tell you specifically who you're speaking about.
24:19He can't specifically name which child it is,
24:23and this gives me great concern,
24:25because what it tells me is there's other children.
24:30How many of the conversations went in all under 18, though?
24:36A couple, three.
24:38So some of the facts that I already know
24:40is that Christopher admitted to me
24:42that he did send, at Edgen's request, nude imagery to him.
24:47You haven't shared them with anybody, have you?
24:49No, sir.
24:50Okay.
24:50I don't believe so.
24:51I don't believe so.
24:52Could you have shared them with somebody?
24:55Possibly.
24:56Who?
24:57Someone you talk to on a regular basis?
24:58Yeah, just someone online that we're talking, is just chatting.
25:01Is that an adult or a kid?
25:05He might be a young adult.
25:08From a legal standpoint,
25:09if Edgen forwarded those illegal images or videos
25:14sent to him by a child victim,
25:16that's a third charge that can be added
25:19called transportation of obscene material of a minor.
25:23People have said, would you with a student?
25:25I'm like, yeah, that would be hot.
25:26Okay.
25:27But no, I wouldn't.
25:28It's not something you acted on.
25:29Right.
25:30Edgen's situation is compounding
25:32the more he opens his mouth.
25:34Do you admit to knowing that he was a kid in high school?
25:39Um,
25:42I mean, there's discussion.
25:43At a certain point, it came out.
25:47Ideally, I would like to be with somebody my own age.
25:49I'd like to have my life be like everybody else's.
25:52Right.
25:52You know, these are, you know, it was, you know, fantasy that got out of control.
26:06I mean, look at his face.
26:08He's like head in hand.
26:11He is like, I'm so busted.
26:13I'm in a play that's in a final dress rehearsal tonight, and I understand what's going on.
26:18But in my head, that's, you know, that's in the back of my mind as well.
26:22He didn't necessarily quantify the gravity of the seriousness of what he had just admitted to.
26:31Unfortunately for Mr. Edgen, he's not going to make that dress rehearsal tonight.
26:35Officers arrest Edgen, and digital analysts search his phone.
26:40After a forensic review of his cell phone and the contents in there,
26:44we determined there's two additional victims, one who is 15 and one who is 16.
26:49Both victims declined to press charges,
26:52but their statements helped to strengthen the case against Edgen.
26:57Investigators find no evidence that Robert Edgen engaged in sexual communications or contact.
27:04with any students from the school where he taught.
27:07His arrest and charges really sent a shockwave through the community.
27:19It is not uncommon at all for someone who has a predatory nature towards children
27:24to position themselves into these roles where they do have trust and they do have authority
27:30because it puts them in the vicinity of kids.
27:34Parents need to do what these parents did.
27:36You notice a behavior change, be intentional, pay attention, look at what's going on,
27:41get involved in your kid's life, not just what's going on in school,
27:44but know what's going on on these devices.
27:47You will help yourself out immensely in the long run.
27:512019, a prolific predator is on Tony's radar.
27:57His appetites are wide-ranging and extreme.
28:01It takes two detectives to bring him in.
28:04He's a non-preferential offender.
28:06He likes boys and girls.
28:09Taking him down becomes the team's top priority.
28:13He's in the parking lot.
28:15Get your hands up.
28:17F***ing bitch, devil.
28:18F***ing.
28:21Robert Guerra.
28:22This guy's fantasies were nasty and varied.
28:26To get him off the street, myself and another detective worked two undercover profiles
28:30to get Guerra into custody.
28:40I got a call from a colleague of mine, Detective Brandon Poore,
28:43who works Internet Crimes Against Children in another agency.
28:48I always say I'm like the little brother Tony never wanted.
28:51We are really close friends.
28:53We talk all the time.
28:55Brandon told me he had been doing an undercover proactive case online.
28:58He was using a platform called Kik.
29:01Some of the kids in our community were using it as a chat platform.
29:05And it was also kind of a haven for predators.
29:14I set up a profile of a 13-year-old boy named Lucas.
29:19I'm using a picture of a teenage boy that was given to me by one of my colleagues,
29:25another officer, when he was that age.
29:27Brandon's Lucas profile joins a Dallas-Fort Worth chat room for hookups.
29:32I'm approached by a user named Rob G4.
29:39Early on in the communications, he's asking me for pictures,
29:43and so I send him a picture of me as Lucas.
29:48And in turn, he sends me a picture of himself, not wearing a shirt, lying in bed.
29:55He's already got the sexual topic on his mind.
29:58And then right after that, he sends me four more pictures of himself.
30:04He's trying to send me pictures that make him look interesting or put him in the best light.
30:09If a 13-year-old boy sees a really cool-looking dude wearing a leather jacket or riding a motorcycle,
30:16I guess maybe he's trying to say, this is why you should be interested in me.
30:22He asked me how old I am.
30:25And he tells me that he's 36.
30:29The normal response is, you're too young, stop talking to me, don't send me anything else.
30:34But he doesn't do that.
30:36Definitely stands out as a red flag to me because that grooming conversation starts so quickly.
30:45Detective Brandon Poore is catfishing online as a 14-year-old boy.
30:50He has a predator named Rob G4 on the hook.
30:54We continue communicating, but this time it's a very sharp turn from where we started.
31:01He tells me he likes both boys and girls.
31:05He's a non-preferential offender.
31:08He starts asking me questions of a sexual nature.
31:12All of these things are grooming in that they're trying to normalize sexualized behavior with a child.
31:20We keep talking, and three or four days later, the conversation turns sexual again.
31:25But this time there's a big change, and it's not talking sexually about me.
31:29He says...
31:33So I replied to him, my cousin is kind of slutty, I think,
31:38knowing that it's an opportunity for me to introduce another investigator, my colleague Tony.
31:45I create this undercover profile for a girl named Jordan who's 13 years old,
31:49and she's going to be Lucas' cousin, which is Brandon's profile that he's been chatting under.
31:56Detective 4 tells me that he's going to share my Jordan profile's phone number with this perpetrator, Rob G4.
32:03And almost right away, I get a message.
32:06Can I have a pic of you?
32:09So I'm going to reach out to my colleague, Audrey Palmer, and see if she can help me out.
32:15Tony comes to me because he can use my current photos, but edit them in such a way that I
32:21look a little bit younger.
32:23It is super odd to be getting these requests from a colleague of mine,
32:28but I know that it is for the greater good, and that Tony is using these to help save children.
32:35I provide pictures of Audrey from the age that I'm saying I am, 13, 14-ish, and he bites right
32:44away.
32:46All the while Tony's talking to Rob, I'm continuing conversations with him as Lucas.
32:52We're just building evidence against this guy, not with one profile, now with two profiles.
32:57So I need to make him aware that he's talking to a child.
33:03He has an opportunity to walk away, but that's not what he does.
33:06What he does do is respond back, and now it turns sexual.
33:13And then, without any prompting whatsoever, another image comes across.
33:16And this time, it's a full frontal nude image of this guy.
33:24Very clear to me, what this guy's doing is grooming this kid for a sexual relationship.
33:33So, in my mind, we're to the point where there are potential criminal acts that have happened,
33:38and so I send a subpoena to KIC to try and identify Rob G4.
33:44And I get a hit.
33:45They give me the information, and his name is Robert Guerra IV.
33:50He's a 37-year-old male who lives in Fort Worth.
33:54With that information, I'm able to check the driver's license database, and I get an image of him.
34:01It's pretty clear that this is the same individual.
34:04Now I know that Rob G4, whom I've been talking to on KIC, is Robert Guerra IV.
34:15So, I ask Jordan, I keep texting with Guerra.
34:18His communications are getting more and more depraved.
34:21His suggestions are really disgusting.
34:24I've got Guerra on the hook at this point, but then there's a problem.
34:30This is really a common situation with predators.
34:33They want a proof pick or a validation pick.
34:36So, I need to act super quick.
34:38I've got to maintain the deception that this Jordan girl is real.
34:41So, I reach back out to my co-worker, Audrey Palmer.
34:46I honestly don't know how to respond.
34:48I just try to think about what Tony is needing from me rather than what the suspect is needing.
34:55So, I send him a picture of me with a finger in my mouth.
35:02I have to wonder, is he going to buy it?
35:05Within a couple minutes, I get a message that says, thank you, babe.
35:08You're really beautiful.
35:10I love your eyes.
35:11This guy, he's in.
35:13He's in it to win it.
35:15After nearly 100 hours of communication, Guerra asked to meet Jordan in person.
35:21What a charmer this guy is.
35:24It's horrible.
35:26The fact that Guerra has now suggested a meeting in person for a sexual purpose, a crime has been committed,
35:33that's online solicitation of a minor.
35:35As Jordan, I agree to this meeting because I'm ready to pounce.
35:42So, it's the time for the meet.
35:44I go there with Brandon Poore.
35:4610.07 a.m., my profile, Jordan's phone goes off with a text message, and it's from Guerra, and he
35:52says,
35:54He arrives earlier than expected.
35:57He's in the parking lot.
35:58So, I'm on pins and needles, just waiting for that perfect opportunity to give the order to execute.
36:05Emotions are up.
36:07Anxiety's up.
36:08It's, you know, very high stress.
36:11Okay, we've got him in front of the mailboxes.
36:13He just pulled in and parked in front of that building 713.
36:17I see Guerra pull up and park where he's supposed to park.
36:21At that moment, I give the order to execute.
36:27Detective Tony Godwin and his team prepared to bring Robert Guerra's predatory game to an end.
36:34All right, y'all, start moving in.
36:39He's still got brake lights on, so.
36:42Hey, look at that, all of them.
36:46Three cars, they swoop in on him.
36:49Get your hands up.
36:55Two minutes ago, he thought he was going to have sex with a 13-year-old girl.
36:58Now, he's got cops just descending in on him.
37:01I got cuffed if you need them, man.
37:03The handcuffs go on Guerra, and that provides a great sense of relief.
37:08You can go tell the girl's mom we got it.
37:11All right.
37:14They got him into custody with no issues, and it was a good day for us.
37:24I mean, you can see he's in the back of that car, and he's moving back and forth.
37:28Like, the weight of the world is on this dude's shoulders, and it should be.
37:39Brandon and I, we get this guy into an interview room, and this is our playground.
37:43This is what we love the most.
37:47I'm glad that I'm sitting back a little ways.
37:51It gives you that opportunity to start rapport with him without being overwhelmed by a second person.
37:58Who were you meeting?
38:00She didn't tell me how old she was.
38:04Are you sure about that?
38:04She was in school.
38:05Well, I know she was in school.
38:07She was a minor.
38:08She was a minor?
38:10Okay.
38:11It is a little game of back and forth, like chess.
38:13I already know the answer to some of these questions.
38:15I want to plant the seed in their mind so that they will think, oh, crap.
38:21Like, he does know about that.
38:23Did you remember her telling you she was 13 and almost 14?
38:28No, she didn't tell me she was 13.
38:30Are you sure?
38:31Yeah.
38:32Because I'm pretty sure she did.
38:34What do you remember her telling you?
38:36How old?
38:3814.
38:39When I confront Gara about Jordan's age being 13, he suddenly is absent-minded that she was 13.
38:47How did you meet this girl?
38:48Where were you at?
38:49I was talking with, chatting, you know, with her cousin.
38:56Is this guy you're talking to, is he an adult or a kid?
38:59No, he's an adult.
38:59Okay.
39:00How old was he?
39:01Well, from what he told me, he's, I think, 21, 22.
39:06It's always good to ask questions we already know the answers to because if he lies, it's
39:11so apparent.
39:12So would you be surprised if I said he told you he was 13?
39:17Yeah, I didn't know he was 13.
39:20I think he's probably at the point where he might actually break down and give us a little
39:25more honesty.
39:27Did you ever send him pictures of anything sexual?
39:32Yes.
39:33What did you send?
39:35Probably the same exact pictures I sent.
39:39A dick pic to him?
39:40I think I probably sent the same exact pictures to him as a dicker.
39:46He's admitting to sending pictures, sexual pictures, to both profiles.
39:53All right, man, at this point, it's time to just, like, let's blow this dude out of the
39:57water.
39:57I have no doubt you would have had some form of sexual relationship.
40:00I have no doubt about that.
40:02The communications lay that out.
40:04I just would like y'all to understand that, you know, I'm not horrible.
40:11I don't think you are.
40:13You know, I'm not a horrible person.
40:16I just have some really bad decision-making skills.
40:21At this point, he's not denying anything.
40:23Like, he seems defeated.
40:25He's against the ropes.
40:26Are we going to find anything that we would consider child pornography on your phone or
40:30in any of your storage accounts?
40:32You are.
40:33Where at?
40:34Um, the gallery.
40:38The fact that he's got this information and these images on his phone, that's a crime.
40:45Bad guys, zero.
40:47Good guys, one.
40:55It's wonderful that he's off the street.
40:57In my mind, there's no telling how many kids that we've prevented him from harming in the
41:02future.
41:03The takeaway for me on this case is that these social media platforms like Kik and Snapchat,
41:09these are places where kids are going to have what they think is fun and talk with their
41:13friends.
41:14This isn't a place where they should be subjected to predatory behavior.
41:18Gone are the days of the predator in the playground.
41:21We live in this environment and we need to do better to safeguard for our children.
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