FBI Looks for Young Victims in International Sexual Exploitation Case

CaptainObvious texted Ashley Reynolds, then 14, and demanded she send him a photo of herself in a bra. He harassed her repeatedly, threatening to go public with photos he already claimed to have.

Reynolds was scared. And then she did the inexplicable.

He said he’d stop bothering her if she sent him photos of herself in her bra, and for reasons she still can’t quite explain, she did it. “All I was thinking was, Just get him off my back,” she says. “I’d never heard of sextortion. I thought he would go away.”

“I thought I could handle it on my own.”

Reynolds, now 20, has lent her face, her name and her story to the FBI as part of a publicity campaign to combat what’s known as ”sextortion.” The Arizona woman recently told her story to Glamour magazine, and the FBI has posted a video of her experience to YouTube.

Reynolds was one of 109 identified victims of a man named Lucas Michael Chansler, and the FBI is asking for the public’s help to find more of Chansler’s victims. At least one is known to be in the Chicago area, and another downstate in the Springfield area, according to the FBI.

“His victims were all young girls,” FBI Special Agent Larry Meyer said at a press conference. “His youngest was 12 oldest was 16.”

Chansler, 31, targeted his victims from an apartment above his parents’ garage in Julington Creek, FL. The FBI believes 350 minors in 26 states, three Canadian provinces and the United Kingdom were victimized by this online predator, who told the FBI he targeted girls because women were “too smart” to fall for his schemes.

Chansler recently was sentenced to 105 years in federal prison for engaging in an extortion scheme to produce child pornography. On Aug. 13, 2014, he pleaded guilty to nine counts of producing child pornography.

Ashley Reynolds fell victim in 2009.

The FBI is working to identify Chansler’s remaining victims. He had 135 known screen names from various web sites, including MySpace, Stickham, and AIM that he used while sexually extorting victims, including CaptainObvious, justinbieber, cutekitty6223, cuddley_182 and tyler_the_conqueror. You may view the full list on the FBI’s website.

Court documents show Chansler threatened hundreds of teen girls over the Internet, officials say, with the intent to extort photographs and webcam videos showing them exposing themselves and engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Chansler pretended to be a friend, acquaintance, or admirer of the victims on various social networking websites.

After gaining some measure of trust from a particular victim, Chansler would invite her to engage in a live video chat, and later would ask her to expose herself. Unbeknownst to the victim, he was recording the video session. Chansler often enticed his victims to expose themselves by showing a streaming video of a minor male exposing himself or engaging in sexually explicit behavior. If a victim did expose herself, he recorded it, and then demanded additional and more graphic images or webcam videos. He would inform the victim that if she did not comply, he would distribute the images and videos online, or send them to her family and friends.

Using information received from the parents of one victim and working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), agents were able to identify Chansler and locate his residence. A federal search warrant was executed at the residence on Jan. 8, 2010.

During an interview, Chansler stated that he used social networking sites to meet girls who ranged in age from 13 to 18. He stated that he targeted underage girls because adult women were “too smart” to fall for his scheme.

Forensic analysis of Chansler’s computer media revealed hundreds of folders labeled with the name of each victim. These folders contained personal information specific to the victims, as well as related chat logs and videos or digital photos. Many of the chat logs contained the threats Chansler had made to the victims.

In several of the videos, the victims are seen crying and pleading with Chansler. He had about 80,000 images and videos in his possession.

“I’m proud of the young girl and her parents for taking a stand against sexual exploitation by submitting the information to NCMEC’s Cyber Tipline,” said Linda Krieg, NCMEC’s acting CEO. “That one CyberTipline report, through the FBI’s investigation, turned out to be the tip of the iceberg involving a sophisticated child predator, who allegedly victimized hundreds of children.”

• If you have information that may help identify victims of Lucas Michael Chansler or believe you have been victimized by him, learn more and complete a confidential questionnaire at www.FBI.gov/Sextortion. You can also send a confidential email to [email protected], contact the FBI’s Boston Division at 1-617-742-5533 or call toll-free at 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324).

Patch editor Patrick Luce contributed to this report.