Osage Beach Man Charged in Child Pornography Investigation

Camdenton, MO - 06-29-23 - 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.