A 19-year-old Latter-day Saint missionary from Utah has been arrested in connection with a child pornography investigation — and police in Mountain View, Calif., are looking for additional victims.
Hayden Hunter, who is from Pleasant Grove, was arrested Wednesday after a “months-long child pornography investigation,” the Mountain View Police Department posted on Facebook. Mountain View is about 13 miles northwest of San Jose, in Santa Clara County.
According to police, they received a tip in September that “someone in a private Facebook Messenger group chat was connected to more than 20 cyber tips relating to suspected child pornography” — and that some group members might be as young as 13. “Over the course of the next few months, detectives had to cull through and ultimately identify numerous videos and images of what was determined to be child pornography."
The post went on to say that the case is still being investigated, and that “detectives are concerned that there may be additional victims online who may have interacted with Hunter either online or in person.” Mountain View police urged anyone who interacted with, or knows someone who interacted with, the email katieteal15@gmail.com — “a username and alias that Hunter was using” during the time the Utah man was a missionary in the Bay Area — to contact Sgt. Tim Dahl at timothy.dahl@mountainview.gov.
According to church spokesman Eric Hawkins , Hunter was “immediately relieved of his position as a missionary” when church leaders learned of the allegations. “We are cooperating fully with law enforcement, and are grateful for their efforts to pursue such serious matters,” Hawkins said in a statement.
“The allegations against this young man are very serious, and are completely against the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Hawkins said. “There can be no tolerance for child pornography. It is among the most serious of sins, and something for which the church requires formal restrictions on membership, including a likely loss of membership in the church.”
Mountain View Police Lt. Frank St. Clair praised investigators for their work on the case. “Their diligence and tireless efforts to stop this predatory behavior are commendable.”
