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Seattle police arrested a 20-year-old woman in Tukwila on child sex abuse charges after a joint investigation with the Washington Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
The woman is accused of sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl, creating and sharing Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) online.
Timeline:
The investigation began in January 2025 after a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) alerted detectives to a user on the platform MeetMe who was discussing the sexual abuse of a minor.
The investigation, which involved search warrants for an internet service provider, Google, and MeetMe, led authorities to the suspect.
On September 17, ICAC investigators served a search warrant at the woman's home. The woman admitted to being the user who had been discussing the sexual abuse of a minor on MeetMe. During the search, investigators found CSAM on her cell phone. The woman also admitted to taking illegal images of the 7-year-old girl and distributing them online.
The woman was taken into custody and booked into King County Jail. She faces charges of first-degree dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and first-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
What they're saying:
"In this case, we identified a victim and provided full, wraparound service," said Sgt. Shawn Martinell. "We brought in advocates. We also called in a child forensic interviewer to ensure we were able to uncover every detail during this investigation."
According to the Seattle Police Department, the lead agency for the Washington ICAC Task Force, its ICAC unit has assisted in more than 75 internet crimes against children arrests across the Puget Sound since January 2025. Three of those arrests were women.
By the numbers:
ICAC detectives note that 25% to 30% of offenders are women, who they say have been harder to detect and are more cautious.
The Seattle Police Department's ICAC Unit receives approximately 2,000 NCMEC CyberTips each month, which are shared with agencies across the state. The department assists other law enforcement agencies with about 80% of ICAC operations.
Detectives said that exploitative cases, including sextortion and chats involving younger children, are on the rise. They said that this case started as a chat on the MeetMe platform, not with images.
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