The FBI has already identified 109 victims of Lucas Chansler, who's been convicted in regard to what the feds describe as "an extortion scheme to produce child pornography."
But they think there are more. A lot more.
According to court testimony, Chansler targeted 350 minors in 26 states, three Canadian provinces and the United Kingdom — and since two of those ID'd thus far are from Colorado, it's certainly possible more children from here were victimized.
Fortunately, Chansler, originally from St. Johns, Florida, is no longer on the loose. Last August, he pleaded guilty to nine counts of producing child pornography and he received a sentence of 105 years in federal prison.
But from 2007 to 2010, he was apparently busy with pervy pursuits. He's said to have pretended to be a "friend, acquaintance or admirer" of girls between thirteen and eighteen that he met via social media. He would then lure them into taking part in live video chats and ask the teens to expose themselves and engage in "sexually explicit conduct," sometimes using video of boys the same age doing likewise as a way of getting them to cooperate. Once they did so, he would record the results, then threaten to expose what they'd done to family or friends unless they provided him with even more graphic material.
By the way, Chansler claimed that he chose the age range noted above because adult women were "too smart" to go along.
After the feds busted Chansler, they found meticulously organized files for his victims, including clips of them "crying and pleading" with him. Estimated number of videos and images: 80,000.
Here's a map showing the locations of known victims. Note that two of the markers are placed near Pueblo.
During his reign of online terror, Chansler is said to have used 135 different screen names — but the following ones were the most common:
argon1049Investigators encourage anyone who recognizes these names or believes they were contacted by Chansler to complete a confidential questionnaire at FBI.gov/sextortion, send a confidential e-mail to [email protected], phone 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324) or call their local FBI field office. The Denver number is 303-629-7171.
poopers2212
vhugh20191
CaptainObvious
anon
Cameroon
corpum15
quinlorn1015 and quinlorn1039
sk8er4life2021
tyler
VictorHugo
Look below to see a larger version of Chansler's booking photo.
Send your story tips to the author, Michael Roberts.