Sacramento sheriff child porn investigation leads to over 80 U.S. victims, arrest
Sacramento County sheriff’s investigators on Tuesday arrested a 24-year-old man suspected of using social media to lure children into performing sexual acts in an investigation that has identified over 80 victims throughout the United States.
Demetrius Carl Davis of Sacramento County was arrested on suspicion of committing a lewd or lascivious act with a child younger than 14 years old, according to Sacramento County Jail records. He was booked at the jail Tuesday, and he’s scheduled to appear Thursday in Sacramento Superior Court for his arraignment.
The child pornography investigation began with a tip to the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes and Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, according to a video news release from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
The cyber tip, which came from the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, was about an online account suspected of uploading child sexual abuse material onto the internet, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Rodney Grassmann said in the video.
The task force on Dec. 1 served a search warrant at Davis’ home, where investigators discovered screen recordings on his digital devices that depicted children engaged in sexual acts, Grassmann said.
He said investigators learned that Davis created various fake identities on social media accounts, pretending to be a pre-pubescent girl named “Lizzy.” Davis used the social media accounts to befriend children and communicate with them to “groom” them for sexual abuse, using sexually explicit language and sending them child porn videos, Grassmann said.
Investigators, through forensic analysis, discovered numerous files of child porn stored on Davis’ cellphones and the social media accounts he was using to communicate with the victims, Grassmann said.
The 80 American minors involved came from California and 25 other states, including Texas, Indiana, Florida and New York.
He said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working with the task force to help identify at least 15 other children internationally who have been allegedly victimized by Davis. The victims vary in age, but typically range from 6 to 13 years old, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
There could be more victims. Investigators believe Davis communicated online with well over 100 children from late 2020 through early December 2021.
“Please check your children’s electronic devices if there is a way they could’ve had internet contact with people you are not familiar with,” Grassmann said in the video.
Investigators asked parents who believe their child may have engaged in illicit communications or sent illicit content over the internet to someone named “Lizzy” through social media to call the task force at 916-874-3002. or send an email to icac@sacsheriff.com.
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 8:05 PM.
