Albuquerque police: Child exploitation sting was a success
'You know when a teacher who is a trusted adult for kids makes one of these violations, it rings really loud,' said Commander Kyle Hartsock, Albuquerque Police Department.
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Crime: Albuquerque police: Child exploitation sting was a success
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Since early June, three Albuquerque teachers have been arrested for inappropriate conduct with minors. 34-year-old Patrick Corr, 66-year-old Kelly McEachran, and on Tuesday, APD brought in 27-year-old Julian Gunther.
'As the investigation is unfolding, of course, we're finding there could be other things that he was up to that are in line with someone who is seeking out children for sexual gratification,' said Hartsock.
Gunther's arrest, in partnership with the Santa Fe Police Department, was part of a larger day-long sting focused on child exploitation in Albuquerque.
Gunther was the only teacher caught up in this particular operation, but it netted a handful of other suspects, including 25-year-old Karim Vargas. 'We also arrested yesterday a person in the chat operation who was talking with an APD detective in an undercover capacity, and he showed up to a park here in town and was met by several uniformed police officers,' said Hartsock.
Vargas believed he was talking to a 15-year-old girl, agreeing to meet at a park to have sex with her. After the arrest, officers found an unopened box of condoms in his car. Hartsock said these cases are rarely one-offs. 'We always presume that there are more victims, which is where we do full investigations into online activity, phone activity. We talk to neighbors, in Mr. Gunther's case, we're going to talk to the school and possible students,' said Hartsock.
He hopes victims come forward. 'If the news is doing a story on it, if the police department feels confident in it, that means if I share my story, I am likely to be believed. So we love all the media attention you guys can give on offenders because we do get victims that come forward,' said Hartsock.
Hartsock said anytime APD gets a tip about inappropriate behavior with a minor, especially a teacher, the case becomes top priority.
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Note: This post contains mentions of sexual assault and murder. It can be hard to ignore our gut feelings, even if the people around us don't quite believe them. And that "I knew it!" moment when we find out our instincts were right all along can be equally as disheartening as it is terrifying. Recently, redditor Unique-Landscape-202 asked the r/AskReddit community to share their own "I knew it" moments when their guts were proven right. Here are their eerie stories. 1."When my son was 14, he lost 30 pounds within a few months. I wasn't terribly concerned out of the gate because he started on the heavy side and seemed to be working for the weight loss. However, he went to Mexico for a week with his dad and came back 10 pounds lighter, and alarm bells started going off because my brother is a type 1 diabetic." "Kiddo had an awful migraine-like headache, so I decided to take him to his pediatrician to have a blood sugar run. 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Months later, we found out from the news that he owned a few rental properties and was accused of sexually assaulting one of his tenants. He also had cameras set up in the bedrooms and bathrooms of his rentals and filmed his tenants. Apparently, the reason for the response was that he sent messages from his work computer threatening to kill the tenant he assaulted." —SnowMiser26 4."A town I lived in had a 'fast fashion' store take-up shop on the far end of the commercial district, which was too far to get any foot traffic. The displays in the windows never changed, and I never saw a single person go in or out. Every time I drove by, I said to my partner, 'That place HAS to be a front for something.' One year later, it was busted for being an illegal grow operation." —cyclejones 5."We had a couple of private Facebook groups at work for internal communications. Just asking coworkers for help on tasks, stuff like that. I came in one morning to find we were locked out of the Facebook groups. Me: 'This doesn't feel right. Something's happening.' Coworker: 'You're just being paranoid. It's just a computer glitch.' The upper management showed up mid-morning to start handing out layoff notices." —originalchaosinabox 6."When I was a kid, the day after Christmas, I would always check out the pawn shops near my grandparent's house so I could spend my Christmas money on used video games. There was one where the owner was very chatty but always gave off a creepy vibe. I couldn't quite pinpoint why, but his shop always felt uncomfortable. Eventually, it came out that he had murdered his ex-girlfriend and incinerated her in the basement of the shop. He got away with it for 15 years until his sons testified against him. I fucking knew it!" —IAmNotScottBakula 7."I was gaslit by my ex for six years, telling me I was hard of hearing. She would mumble things constantly, making me ask her to speak up. She said I was old, my hearing was going, etc., even though I never had to ask people at work in a busy office to speak up or repeat things. After six years, she fucked up, though. We live in Hawaii, and some of her college girlfriends came out to visit and stay with us." "After two days of walking and talking with her friends, one of her girlfriends finally snaps and yells, 'Why are you talking so quietly? What the hell is wrong with you? No one can hear you!! You never talked under your breath before! What the hell?' She looked at me and knew her ass was busted. So, for years and years, it was just a petty way to put one over on me, I guess. This was a 30-year-old grown-ass woman. I'll never understand it. " —ssshield 8."Recently, I was planning a sabbatical as I had been with the company for 10 years. In the lead-up to the month, I kept procrastinating on making the arrangements for one reason or another. I couldn't shake this sense of dread for some reason. 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At least one Master's student burned a year trying to build on that work and got nowhere. It turns out that one of the golden children of my PhD program and someone who was featured by funding agencies as the next big thing had built their scientific career mostly on lies, and it took 10 years for anyone to really catch on. There are some really great scientists who just happen to land on fruitful projects, but no one is that productive and lucky all the time." —spicypeener1 Did you ever have a bad gut feeling about something and ended up being right? Tell us about it in the comments or fill out this anonymous form. Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity. If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website.
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