A Columbia woman turned herself in to court on child pornography charges, and was arrested on charges of possession of child pornography on Friday.
The suspect, identified as 20-year-old Kristen Lamb, was released on bond the same day.
The arrest is the result of an investigation by the Boone County Sheriff’s Department Cyber Crimes Task Force.
“We investigate any kind of Internet related offenses,” Boone County Sheriff’s Department detective Andy Anderson said. “We focus on Internet crimes against children.”
This particular investigation had been ongoing since October 2010, when investigators discovered a computer believed to be offering child pornography through a file-sharing program, a sheriff’s department news release stated. During a court-ordered search in December, a laptop was seized, which held several videos identified as child pornography involving pre-pubescent children.
Anderson said arrests of female suspects related to child pornography are uncommon. Lamb is the only female in Boone County arrested for possessing child pornography since Jan. 1, 2007.
Two people suspected of possession of child pornography have turned themselves in during the past week, Anderson said. But the arrests that were made are unrelated, and are individual investigations.
“There are a variety of ways that we get the information to investigate,” Anderson said. “We get reactive investigations, those are complaint tips. We may get someone that calls with a tip that someone has child pornography on their computer. Or, we get tips that people turn their computers into repair people and they find child pornography on their computer.”
The Cyber Crimes Task Force also works undercover operations, looking for people who share child pornography through file-sharing programs.
Anderson said it is not uncommon for arrests relating to Internet crimes to last a few months.
“This is not television,” Anderson said. “This is real life. Investigations of this nature take a while. We found evidence that someone was sharing child pornography. Then we analyzed all the information we took in. That analysis is pretty tedious and time consuming. Then, once we finish that investigation we have to send that to the prosecuting attorneys office. In reality, these cases take a while.”
The Cyber Crimes Task Force expects to make more arrests in the future regarding child pornography.
“These investigations are pretty labor intensive,” Anderson said. “We’re trying to do the best investigation we can, but to streamline it to – especially in the forensics end — where we’re trying to take as little time as possible to the best investigation we can.”