Pair baby-sat victims, Wise County sheriff says; images found
07:57 AM CST on Friday, March 24, 2006
By PAUL MEYER / The Dallas Morning News
A Wise County brother and sister are in jail after they used baby-sitting jobs for friends to produce child pornography, authorities said Thursday.
Phyllis G. Riedle, 48, and her half brother Kevin Riedle, 41, were living together in an incestuous relationship and possessed a large cache of child pornography on a computer, sheriff's officials say.
"It's a sick case," Wise County Sheriff David Walker said.
From photographs on the computer, investigators identified two local children as victims – an
18-month-old girl who had been sexually assaulted and a 7-year-old girl who was photographed nude. Ms. Riedle baby-sat both children."We think that the brother and sister were both there at the time," Sheriff Walker said.
Ms. Riedle turned herself in to police Wednesday on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child and was booked into the Wise County Jail. Her bail has been set at $150,000.
Sheriff Walker said she confessed to investigators. Officers also found photos of a 14-year-old female relative on the computer.
Mr. Riedle was arrested March 1. He faces four charges of possession and promotion of child pornography. He remains in jail, with bail set at $300,000.
"Since then, the investigation has continued to grow humongous," Sheriff Walker said.
It began 18 months ago when Dallas police received a tip that Mr. Riedle had child pornography on his computer, Sheriff Walker said. Mr. Riedle worked as a long-distance truck driver and carried the laptop on trips, transmitting through wireless connections at truck stops.
About a month ago, Dallas police contacted their Wise County counterparts to let them know Mr. Riedle might be living in Runaway Bay, a small town on the southern shore of Lake Bridgeport.
The brother and sister were living with Ms. Riedle's two children. The children are in Child Protective Services' custody, Sheriff Walker said.
An analysis of the computer hard drive produced thousands of digital images of child pornography, including children engaged in sex acts with adults.
"
This does have pictures of what looks to be 12- to 18-month-olds all the way up to teenagers in various stages of sexual assault," Sheriff Walker said.
"It is a bad, bad deal. Quite honestly, I hope I and my investigators never have to see anything like this again."
There were also several hundred video clips.
Investigators are continuing to look for other possible victims but say they believe most of the pictures and videos came from third parties.
"The majority of images and videos we believe came through the Internet," Sheriff Walker said.
The FBI, Dallas police and Tarrant and Wise counties' district attorney's offices have been helping in the investigation.
"If there's anybody familiar with Kevin and Phyllis Riedle ... we want to hear from them," Sheriff Walker said.
Death.