From the CyberCop Case Files:
I Want to Grab a Kid
Not too long ago a friend of mine with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) called me with a request. In our part of the country local, state and federal law enforcement officers have to work together. Each law enforcement agency has a large area that we have to cover and we are all working with limited resources so it is often best that we work together as much as possible. The same goes for us local cybercops. We get together regularly or we call each other in order to discuss the latest high tech crime fighting techniques, or to work cases together. This particular call, however, was just a little different. The Special Agent said that he had something that just came in from one of their offices in Texas. He told me that he had received a transcript from an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) session and he wanted to tell me about it. During the IRC chat correspondence one of the participants had written a detailed plan about preparing the kidnap and rape a young boy from a shopping mall. The chat indicated that the mall might be somewhere in our city. The FBI agent asked if I would be interested in reading the chat sessions logs and would I give him my opinion of the situation.
When the agent arrived I took a look at the transcript and was horrified by what I read. The IRC chat session showed what appeared to be two people chatting online. One was "PITH," who apparently sent the FBI the computer chat logs, and the other was the suspect known only as "Kimmo."
PITH stated that he and Kimmo began chatting around 4:30 a.m. The conversation lasted approximately 20 minutes at which time PITH became quite concerned about what Kimmo had been telling him. PITH saved the chat log file and then contacted law enforcement about the incident. The chat was a chilling and frightening view into a demented mind.
Kimmo: I’d do a 2yo if I could get away with it. why not snatch one [a boy] ? rape him.
PITH: I could not live with myself.
Kimmo: I know the feeling. But I want to do it anyway. He’d be 6 or so.
PITH: How young would you go?
Kimmo: newborn I guess, 2 is sweet.
PITH: how long do u think it would take b4 u could go all the way [with your plan]?
Kimmo: a few weeks I guess. Take him to the cabin.
The rest of the eight pages of chat noted extremely graphic sexually explicit details which included the very specific ways that the suspect said he would enjoy "raping" and "torturing" his victim. During the rest of the chat the suspect, Kimmo, gave details about the specific shopping mall that he had scoped out and the general area of his cabin north of the city. Kimmo was also very specific about the sexual acts that he was going to perpetrate against his victim. It was apparent that Kimmo had been thinking and fantasizing about this attack for some time.
It appeared to me that Kimmo had developed a specific plan and that he had the ways and means of carrying out his plan. Although he did not say what he was going to do with the boy after he raped him at the cabin, the details in every other aspect of his plan led me to believe that he did not intend to send the child home alive. Our Crimes Against Children investigators concurred with my analysis and echoed the feeling that this guy was for real and should be taken seriously. We knew we had to move before Kimmo was able to carry out his plan.
The FBI and our department immediately began working on the case. At one point we had fourteen agents and police detectives working on this single investigation. We put officers in the area of the shopping mall on alert. Every call of any missing children in the area was to be sent directly to me anytime of the day or night. For the next week we continued to track and identify the suspect. Three times I was paged that a boy near the area of the mall had been reported late or was missing. In every one of the incidents the children were located quickly and with no signs of foul play. Our luck appeared to be holding, at least for the time being.
We continued to track the location of our suspect by going under cover into Internet Chat rooms looking for Kimmo, tracing his Internet Protocol (IP) address, and using tools such as search warrants and subpoenas to gather a trail of information leading to our suspect.
The trail led to a divorced father living on the outskirts of our city. Agents began watching him and his house. Others checked into his background and learned more about how he operated. He appeared to have no criminal history, however, he was very adept at computers. He also matched many of the details that had been communicated to PITH during the disturbing chat session.
We obtained search warrants for the suspect’s house and prepared to search his office as well. On a clear, cold morning we hit the office and the house of our suspect. Another group of officers attempted to interview the suspect.
The suspect played it like he didn’t know what we were talking about. He denied any knowledge of the chat session between PITH and Kimmo. When presented with irrefutable evidence, including an electronic trail that lead directly to his home computer, he finally admitted that he was Kimmo. He stated that he participated in the chat because he was heavily intoxicated at the time. He told investigators that he had never harmed a child and that he would never hurt anyone.
His computer systems at home and at work told another tale. On his home computer and on various computer media we found hundreds of images of child pornography, including images of children being forced into bondage, and raped. Kimmo had also developed a fondness for collecting hundreds of computer drawings depicting children having their bodies sliced, mutilated, and displayed in disturbing and gory fashion.
The suspect was arrested and he later pleaded to possession and distribution of child pornography. He is currently serving his time in federal prison.
Was the suspect just drunk when he was chatting with PITH? Would he really "never harm a child" as he told us? Would he really have grabbed a kid from the mall and taken him to a cabin to be raped and tortured? We may never know for certain. I do know that for at least the next few years this guy will not have a chance to make good on his plans thanks to the hard work of the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s office, and our team of dedicated investigators.