Nowhere to Hide: How OSINT Tracks Fugitive Pedophiles

US Marshals caught 10,088 fugitive sex offenders last year. OSINT can help.

Preah Sihanouk is on the tip of Cambodia’s elevated, Gulfside peninsula. Known for its fresh-caught seafood and sun-baked beaches surrounded by glittering blue ocean, there’s many reasons to visit towns like the seaside haven anglicized as ‘Sihanoukville’. They’re the reasons why tourists flock to Cambodia: gold-encrusted temples, local Khmer cuisine.

Pedophiles have other reasons to flock to Cambodia. Mostly to get out of the United States, and – mostly – to escape prosecution.

The BBC documentary The Pedophile Hunters describes Sihanoukvile as ‘paradise, or at least a decent, low-rent version’. We see the sea, the sand, the fish and fruit stalls in a riot of yellows and greens and reds. Cameras turn on 51-year-old retired pharmacist Ronald Adams, an American setting up a beachside guesthouse named ‘Coasters’. 

When officers from the Cambodian National Police kick down Adams’ apartment door, they find eight ecstasy pills, nine grams of cannabis, a collection of sex toys, and 34 DVDs of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). Ronald Adams was a pedophile on the run, and since arriving in Cambodia, he’d drugged and raped at least one child: a 12-year-old Khmer girl.

‘Don't think that simply by buying a plane ticket to leave the United States and going to a country with less robust investigative and prosecutorial capacities that you are going to be able to get away with it again…’ – John Morton, former director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) [Source: BBC]

Cambodia bears deep scars. 30 years before Adams flew in, US B-52 carpet-bombers had made the same flight with 500,000 tons of cargo. A few years later, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge had attempted to shove Cambodia back into the agrarian Middle Ages, perpetrating one of the worst atrocities of 20th century history over four years. Their acts of genocide – in forced labor (concentration) camps, prisons and infamous ‘killing fields’ – murdered between 1.7 million and 3 million Cambodians, until Vietnamese-backed forces drove the regime back into the jungle. 

That Vansak Suos, a Cambodian-born ICE agent who pursued Ronald Adams and over 85 other pedophiles, was once a conscripted boy soldier in the Khmer Rouge army, places these traumas within living memory. Suos lost a brother, two sisters, and a grandfather to Pol Pot’s genocide; the documentary shows him, grown up, at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, a photo with Bill Clinton on his desk. Many Cambodians draw strength from the pain they’ve felt, assisting US forces to tackle threats to Cambodian and American children.

However, these horrors would cost any nation its stability – and desensitize it to crisis. The 20th century was not kind to Southeast Asia as a whole. Other developing and wounded nations, like Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, are recovering from both historical and current pain. The result is a reliance on tourist economies, and on foreign money. Combine this reliance with the legacy of trauma, and something worse is born: a tendency to turn a blind eye to an influx of American and international pedophiles.

‘Police have been known to guard brothels and even procure children for prostitution... Some police directly exploit the children themselves…’ – Sowmia Nair, Thai Department of Justice Agent [Source: ABC]

Most UK residents recall the shock of disgraced pop star Gary Glitter, a fugitive pedophile, receiving only a three year sentence for his crimes in Vietnam. The notorious ‘Mr Swirl’ received only 39 months for ten CSAM and abuse charges. Sadly, light punishments are a ‘pull factor’ towards Southeast Asia. While in the US, 99.5% of pedophiles get jail, countries like Indonesia punish child exploitation with just a fine – a reflection of the economic incentives that keep struggling governments oblivious. Although prison conditions in these countries are poor, pedophiles can expect to be free in a matter of months. Most will never see the inside of a prison cell.

As for police, many Southeast Asian countries have underfunded and therefore inefficient law enforcement. Some forces are even complicit in what has become a lucrative child sex tourism (CST) industry. In countries dangerously reliant on tourist tips, American pedophiles can leverage their sought-after dollars to bribe an officer or judge. In parts of Cambodia, $100 is enough to rob victims of justice.

‘Frank just stood up and put his hand in his pocket. Then, shaking the hand with the boss. And the boss just found $100 in his hand…’ – Vansak Suos, ICE Agent, on the arrest of millionaire Floridian child sex tourist Kent Frank [Source: BBC]

Most tragically, pedophiles know that poverty – with half of Cambodian citizens living on under $2 a day – forces victims into exploitative situations. The statistics for CST victims are dire. Victims will not go to school, and may be sold by their desperate parents. About one-third of prostitutes in Cambodia are children; of street working boys in Sihanoukville, 26% reported they had performed sex acts with adults for money, food or other essentials. In Cebu City in the Philippines, 25% of sex workers are exploited children. In all, 47% of trafficking victims in Asia are aged 0 to 17. For a fugitive sex offender, countries like Cambodia are an irresistible refuge. They not only flee to Southeast Asia, but like Robert Adams, keep offending there. 

US Congresspeople made moves back in 2003 to right one wrong. Before the Protect Act, prosecutors had to prove intent to abuse children in order to prosecute a sex tourist — something almost impossible to demonstrate. With the lines between fugitive pedophiles and child sex tourists often blurred, this Act made it easier to prosecute fugitives for the crimes they committed in their host country, doubling penalties to up to 30 years in prison.

The BBC operation took place in 2011. Much has changed since then. For example, Adams would now have no need for DVDs. Much has changed for fugitive pedophiles looking to get away with their crimes too. Catching these pedophiles remains a task for US Marshals and dedicated US law enforcement operatives – but today, it’s a task in which OSINT plays an increasingly influential role. 

‘When they sleep with me, they feel very happy… But for me, I feel very bad.’ – So Vuong, a Cambodian Victim of Child Sex Tourism. [Source: CNN]

Thanks to OSINT, escaping from the law has never been so difficult. Whether they run to Cambodia, Cebu City or California, OSINT means fugitives have nowhere to hide.

Meet Wesley*, a Crime Analyst. 

‘OSINT is a very important part of my work…’ – Wesley*, Crime Analyst [Souce: OSINT Industries]

Wesley* reached out to OSINT Industries to tell his story of how OSINT is uniting US law enforcement to catch these fugitives. As a Crime Analyst with a local County Sheriff’s Office, Wesley was key in apprehending a pedophile on the run from felony sex crimes in his state.  This OSINT investigation would span to the other side of the world, and prove that nobody can escape the long arm of the law. 

Wesley’s felon and Ronald Adams may be fifteen years apart, but their stories are similar. 

In 2019, pedophile Shawn H had committed Sodomy 1, indicating a victim under the age of 12; this is, appropriately, a Class A felony in Wesley’s state. As soon as a warrant was issued for his arrest, the wanted subject had fled not only the county, but the country. 

It was now down to Wesley’s team, working with the US Marshals, to find him. Leveraging OSINT was what allowed these officers to apprehend their fugitive – to track him all the way to Cambodia, where he had tried to restart his life beyond the grip of justice. His years of unearned freedom were soon over.

This is the story of how the Sheriff's Department and the Marshals managed to bring Shawn H from the Cambodian heat to County Jail – all thanks to the information relayed to the international apprehension team by Wesley’s hard work and OSINT analysis.

SOCMINT: From Facebook to Phnom Penh

It’s easy to imagine Shawn H’s relief that he had escaped the law, at the expense of justice for his victims. Having evaded the consequences of his crime, he was ready to join the ranks of fugitive pedophiles on the run.

Unfortunately, Shawn H had failed to cover his tracks. 

Few people can successfully hide from a crack OSINT analyst. As soon as the investigation began, Wesley started to research. The more information he could gather, the more could be relayed to the US Marshals. Soon Wesley was sure of two things: his subject had fled the United States, and had an ‘active, semi-open Facebook account’. This is all he needed to leverage OSINT for a lead. 

He began to comb Shawn H’s Facebook account, gathering details on the pedophile’s life and whereabouts from everything viewable. This felon’s OpSec mistake turned out to be fatal. Soon, Wesley’s SOCMINT had uncovered more than his subject would have bargained for, including GeoInt data that suggested his current whereabouts. Wesley described his process; how he then ‘organized and analyzed the information to produce intelligence to go off’. The results of this professional-grade OSINT analysis? A place of employment, family members, places frequented around a certain city, piecemeal details from photographs.

Wesley’s OSINT was indicating Shawn’s new home was far from the evergreen firs of his home state. Predictably, this pedophile had exchanged them for coconut palms. The OSINT exposed he had been hiding out in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for years. 

‍‘[Phnomh Penh] is known around the world as a place where pedophiles come to get little girls… When we came here three years ago and began to live here, 100% of the kids between 8 and 12 were being trafficked… We didn't believe it until we saw vanload after vanload of kids…’ – Don Brewster, Founder of Agape International Missions (AIM) [Source: CNN]

This analyst’s next lead – phone numbers and email addresses this fugitive had unwittingly revealed. With these, he could plug into OSINT Industries.

Maps, Marketplace and an OSINT Manhunt

As a professional analyst, Wesley is methodical in his OSINT work. Isolating Shawn’s phone number and email address as potential search selectors, he headed to OSINT Industries. 

Our tool delivered a map, littered with Google Reviews that Shawn had left on his regular haunts in Phnom Penh. To the eye of a pro investigator, a pattern began to emerge; a rough radius formed on the map as he matched details to known locations. Wesley now had a general idea of where the wanted man was. But “general” wasn’t enough to apprehend him. 

If he wanted an arrest, Wesley needed concrete evidence of where this pedophile called home. He needed to direct US Marshals to kick down the right door. Now armed with a hazy but certain view of this pedophile’s stomping grounds, Wesley turned to Google Street View. 

‘There is still a concerning, increasing number of foreign sex offenders traveling to Cambodia to engage in sexual exploitation of children.’ – Samleang Seila, ALPE Cambodia Director and INHOPE Board Member [Source: VoA]

‘Walking’ along virtual streets in the Cambodian capital click-by-click, Wesley was seeking geographical features that matched his scarce impression of Shawn’s current home residence. He zoomed in, panned around, compared doorways and balconies, scanning for a sign or marking that could serve as a lead. Wesley remembers this manual work as ‘extremely cumbersome and slow’ yielding ‘no results after many, many hours’.

For many OSINT investigators, this is the point at which stagnation sets in. However, Wesley had an ingenious idea: if Shawn was living in Cambodia, he might be buying or selling something. His OSINT strategy shifted gears. Wesley began scanning online forums, marketplaces and local forums where Cambodian residents could do business. After hours trawling through posts and filtering our irrelevant listings, Wesley found a lead – a months-old post by Shawn H, selling a motorcycle. Again, this fugitive pedophile had made a fatal mistake. In the listing, the motorcycle’s license plate was in full view.

Wesley didn’t waste a second. He immediately turned over this intel to the U.S. Marshals, and Cambodian authorities ran the plate, tracing it back to an address. Soon, the moment came that this predator had tried so hard all those years to avoid. Shawn H had his ‘Ronald Adams moment’; taken into custody at his home, in the very city he believed would keep him hidden. 

‘This was the piece of information that solved the case.’ – Wesley*, Crime Analyst [Souce: OSINT Industries]

After a short (and likely unpleasant) stint in Cambodian jail, Wesley’s wanted man was shackled on a plane, taking his inevitable journey back to the United States to face consequences at last. Two mistakes – and capable OSINT to find them – was all it took. With nothing more than a Facebook account, OSINT Industries, fragmentary contact details and sheer analytical skill, Wesley had pulled this pedophile back from his haven in the sun. 

Now in the hands of the US Marshals, one more pedophile was no longer a fugitive. He was no longer free.

Day-to-Day with OSINT Industries 

‘While OSINT industries didn’t solve the case for me, it was a crucial tool.... It allowed me to pursue leads down a specific avenue to ensure nothing was left unchecked.’ – Wesley*, Crime Analyst [Souce: OSINT Industries]

This case demonstrates that one thing is for certain — no one can truly disappear when OSINT is at hand. Least of all, a predatory felon. The digital world keeps careful records, all of which are open source. An analyst like Wesley is watching, patiently unraveling the web a fugitive pedophile left behind, and watching for every tiny inevitable slip-up.

No one tool can solve a case. No one tool can secure an arrest warrant, conviction or extradition. These results are the work of dedicated analysts, officers and investigators. However, a tool like OSINT Industries can deliver vital help in their journey towards justice. 

In this case, Wesley’s investigation took a crucial step forward when he employed OSINT Industries. As he describes, ‘I knew my target could be anywhere in the city of Phnom Penh. After I used [the tool], I knew he was more likely to be in a certain part of the city based on the reviews he had left.’ OSINT Industries was the key that opened up social media accounts, email address connections and more.

Wesley found out about our tool via a Detective colleague, who had attended a law enforcement training in California. Today, this analyst utilizes OSINT Industries not only in large cases like these, but also in day-to-day intelligence gathering on other criminal targets. We’re proud to be supporting him in his vital work. 

‍‘OSINT is changing law enforcement for the better. Some agencies may not be aware of OSINT or what an intelligence analyst can provide them. But once they find out...’ – Wesley*, Crime Analyst [Source: OSINT Industries]

If you suspect grooming or child abuse online, always report it. 

IWF (UK): https://report.iwf.org.uk/org/

NCMEC (US): https://report.cybertip.org/

If you know the abuse took place out of the US or UK, browse the reporting index below or contact an INHOPE Hotline:

Index: https://www.icmec.org/education-portal/reporting-mechanisms/ 

INHOPE: https://www.inhope.org/EN/the-facts

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*Some names have been changed to protect identities.