And I'm freakin' out. This could blow the whole case.
[Narrator] Next, Detective Tony Godwin teams up with the FBI
to capture a predator who wants a mother to offer up her child.
[Narrator] Then the team goes after a registered sex offender
who brazenly hunts for victims on social media.
[Narrator] But his darkest secrets are buried in his DMs.
[Narrator] And Tony executes a pre-dawn raid
to expose an online pedophile ring.
[Officer] Police deparment!
[Tony] Those who are watchers may not all be doers,
but those who are doers
all started out as being watchers.
Get on the ground!
[Narrator] A team of police professionals
in North Dallas has one goal...
[Officer 1] Get outta the car!
[Narrator] Take down online predators before they harm
a real child.
Online predators pose the biggest danger
to America's children today.
This team is opening its case files
for the first time to show you how it tracks them down.
[suspenseful music]
[Tony] All right, he's comin' this way.
[Narrator] And brings them to justice by any means necessary.
[suspenseful music continues]
This is Detective Tony Godwin, and his team is...
the Predator Hunters.
2018: Tony joins forces with the FBI to hunt down one
of the most depraved offenders he's ever faced.
I believe I know what he's looking for,
a woman who has access to a child.
[Narrator] Together, they set the bait
to draw the predator into the open.
[Narrator] And when he's caught,
he's desperate to escape the truth.
[suspenseful music]
[Tony] Sometimes to catch a monster,
you have to think like a monster.
The predator's name in this case is Keith Merchant.
To snag this guy, an undercover FBI agent had to act
as the most vile person you could ever imagine
so our team could get him off the street.
[tense music]
It's not always me that initiates cases.
In this case,
I got a call from Jen Mullican, special agent with FBI Dallas.
She works on the child Exploitation unit.
[tense music continues]
As a fed, she needs the help of the locals.
And as a local, I need the help of the feds.
[tense music continues]
I work crimes against children as it pertains to the internet.
That includes matters such as child pornography,
online enticement, kidnaping matters.
Nothing beats putting an offender behind bars
for several years and getting justice for a child.
But I do go to some of the dark places on the internet.
[tense music continues]
[suspenseful music]
[Narrator] Special Agent Mullican
begins a proactive investigation on Craigslist.
Child predators sometimes lurk in the personals
of this well-known classified ads website.
[suspenseful music continues]
Immediately, I see something that captures my attention:
"Taboo family fun."
When I see the word taboo,
I know from experience that that's a word
that sexual offenders have used when they're
looking for children.
The content of the message says:
" Looking for someone interested in this subject.
I'm sure you ladies are out there."
He's being slightly cryptic,
but I believe I know what he's looking for:
a woman who has access to a child.
[suspenseful music continues]
I create a profile,
DallasLilMiss1, and she's a mother
that's offering up her ten year old child for sex.
[suspenseful music continues]
Jen puts herself out there in what we call a bad mom role,
where she is an adult offering up her own child
for sexual acts.
It's a thought
that most people can't even wrap their minds around,
but it exists.
It's out there.
It's far more common than anybody would imagine.
[suspenseful music continues]
These particular offenders wanna talk with you 24/7.
When you're working as a mother offering up a child,
you take that work home with you
and you can be online with them all night long.
[tense music]
I immediately wanna find out
if this individual has access to a child.
[tense music continues]
So I respond with, "Very nice. You active now?"
In the child exploitative world, the term active is somebody
that actually has access to a child
and is currently engaging in sexual acts with that child.
[tense music continues]
He comes back with, "I'm looking for some."
Well, that tells me that he's not
actively offending against a child, but that he wants to.
[tense music continues]
I let him know that I am
looking for somebody to educate my little girl.
[tense music continues]
in the language these people use, educate means to teach
my daughter about sexual activity.
Once he learns that I want to educate my baby girl,
he asked her age...
and I explained to him she's ten years old.
I am sickened by this,
but the end game is the important aspect of it,
knowing that you're going to put an offender in jail.
[tense music continues]
His response to me was, "I can come up there in a few weeks."
So he confirms to me he is a sexual predator
that is interested in raping a child.
[tense music continues]
[Tony] This blew me away.
This guy is off the chain in depravity.
He's lookin' to exploit a child in a completely different way,
because he's looking
for an actual kid through a parent,
or someone who has access to a real child
willing to offer that child up.
It's an area I don't even want to touch.
I've done it a few times, but Jen is the go to person.
[suspenseful music]
[Narrator] Two days into the Craigslist conversation,
the predator suggests that he
and Jenn continue their exchange on Kik.
Kik is an anonymous chat app.
The predator believes
that it will keep him off the radar of law enforcement.
So I transfer to Kik and I created an account:
[suspenseful music continues]
DallasLilMiss1.
-[suspenseful music continues] -[phone beeps]
[Narrator] The predator's Kik username is M3rchandize6.
[suspenseful music continues]
[Jen] He's startin' to express more
interest in my child by askin' specific details about her.
I tell him that she's into swimming and soccer.
[suspenseful music continues]
He then offers to bring her a gift: lingerie.
[suspenseful music continues]
Any adult male who offers to bring lingerie
to a ten-year-old child is twisted like you
would not believe.
[tense music]
So he and I are going back and forth chatting,
but then he throws an issue in my way.
[tense music continues]
In my investigations, I don't freely share pictures.
They're hard to come by.
But I use this as an opportunity to request a picture from him.
[tense music continues]
If he's smart, he's not gonna send a picture to me.
But they're not very smart all the time.
[tense music continues]
Lo and behold, he does send a picture.
So this is a big result for the investigation.
And at this point, I decide to ask him,
"Are you comfortable sharing your first name?
Mine is Haylee."
And then I add, "Your new girlfriend is CC."
[tense music continues]
Once I get his name, I'm ecstatic because this is a step
closer to arresting a bad offender.
Now I have him in my sights.
[suspenseful music]
[Tony] So Jen comes to me with the name Keith.
[suspenseful music continues]
That's great information, but it doesn't get us very far.
So what I do now is I send a subpoena to Kik.
I have the username for that account.
Two days later, Kik gets back to me with an email address.
[suspenseful music continues]
Now we can get him identified.
And so when we run him through some database checks,
we get the Holy Grail.
We get a positive ID on the name Keith Lee Merchant.
[suspenseful music continues]
It's fantastic for the case. We strike gold.
This guy's already a registered sex offender.
In 2004, he was convicted for indecency
with a child by contact.
And he did six years of an eight year sentence at that time.
[suspenseful music continues]
Indecency with a child by sexual contact means that Merchant
actually put his hands on a real child.
That really ups the ante
and makes us wanna move with some urgency.
[suspenseful music continues]
[Narrator] Special Agent Mullican
keeps Keith Merchant talking.
Their conversation stretches into a second week,
and then Merchant makes his move.
[suspenseful music continues]
[Jen] On March 8th of 2018, he suggests a meeting.
That's him crossing the legal threshold,
and we can go ahead and prepare for the takedown.
-[tense music] -[truck rumbles]
[Narrator] The takedown location is an apartment complex.
Tony and his team wait out of sight, ready to swoop in.
So this particular takedown is going to happen at a location
that I'm very familiar with, as is my team.
It's a one way in,
one way out kind of a place; we can control everything.
So the game plan is Jen and I are in my truck
and we are kind of hidden inside the complex.
I also have uniformed officers in marked patrol cars,
but they're kind of hidden so that they can't be seen.
I don't want the suspect to see cops
and then he'll get spooked and take off.
[tense music continues]
[Tony] I get a notification
from my covert guy on the outside who says,
"Hey, he's pulled in the complex"
[tense music continues]
[Tony] The guy parks, and then he immediately backs out...
and all of a sudden it's like, "Oh, my God! What's happened?
Has he seen us? Has he spotted a cop?"
[tense music continues]
[tense music]
[Narrator] Predator Keith Merchant thinks he's meeting
a mother who's willing to give up her child for sex.
Tony watches the predator park at the takedown location.
But then Merchant starts to move.
He goes all the way
around to the other side of the complex.
And it's really a tense moment
because you never know what's gonna happen.
Man, my... my anxiety is super high.
I'm freakin' out. This could blow the whole case.
[tense music continues]
And then luck is on our side.
[tense music continues]
[Tony] I give the command to execute.
It's game time.
[Tony] And we pounce on him like white on rice.
[Jen] In the passenger seat,
we observed an overnight bag
and some lingerie that he had discussed
he wanted the child to wear during their encounter.
[suspenseful music]
He's such a liar.
I think he forgets that we have his cell phone
and that that's what is gonna tell us
the truth of everything.
He's like, "Oh, wait, they do know about this."
Oh, and he knows there's chat about lingerie.
So let me give you some story
about my girlfriend and all this kinda stuff.
What a bunch of garbage.
He's starting to get nervous because he's understanding
the evidence that we're finding in his vehicle.
[Jen] This is what happens when suspects start lying.
They can't keep track of the lies,
and they start tying themselves in knots.
And they get all confused about what they've said
and where they're going with their story.
I don't normally want to, um, let it get under my skin
like that, but this guy just pushed every button I had.
I'm so relieved that this is done.
I don't have to chat with this individual anymore.
I don't have to talk to him about disgusting things anymore.
I'll be able to go home tonight and finally get a night's rest.
[intense music]
He won't be out until he's in his 70s.
It's good to know that Keith Merchant
is not gonna be able to hurt a kid.
He will offend again if he ever got the opportunity.
Because of Jen's hard work, he's never gonna get that.
[Narrator] April 2019: Detective Tony Godwin sits face-to-face
with one of the most shameless predators
he's ever encountered,
a man who treats his crimes like a joke.
-[Tony] Are you kiddin'? -[laughing]
[Narrator] But as Tony lays out the truth, the smile fades.
It's not funny anymore.
My team and I, we went through a bunch of twists and turns
to get this guy, Eric Grzywinski, into custody.
We thought it was bad, what was publicly available.
But what we found out in his private life,
the real deviance, was shocking.
[tense music]
[Tony] April 11th of 2019, I received a cyber tip
from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
NCMEC is what we call that,
and they're the clearinghouse here in the US
for online-related complaints
that involve potential predators.
So this member of the public reported directly to NCMEC,
and they said, "This is a pedophile
that is sexual with teenagers on Twitter.
He's also soliciting nudes
and distributing child pornography."
Please investigate this account immediately."
I got a really good starter kit goin'.
I got a picture of this guy. I got a Twitter handle.
I look at this profile and the username is Eric.
[tense music continues]
[Narrator] Eric's username is blurred out
to protect innocent social media users with similar handles.
[tense music continues]
Another interesting thing is this guy's bio,
which is right underneath his photograph on his profile.
It says: "Single with no kids.
I'm very open minded about everything and anything.
I love to sext."
This guy is an absolute weirdo, right?
He puts all this out in the open, in the public.
It's all publicly available.
It makes me very concerned that he's lookin' for kids.
[suspenseful music]
[Narrator] Detective Godwin needs access
to the predator's private Twitter messages.
He calls in digital analyst Tavie Guthrie.
Tony comes to me with a request
to make a submission to Twitter for everything that we can
get back on a Twitter handle of Eric.
So this is a huge task because Twitter
is such a huge organization.
This is definitely not something we're gonna get back quickly.
So I submit the subpoena and all we can do now is wait.
[tense music]
[Narrator] Twitter releases Eric's data to Tony's team.
Their report contains nearly 1500 private messages,
and the case takes a dark turn.
Okay, so look at this... What he's saying here.
Uh, "You're extremely beautiful. Do you like older guys?"
Wow, look at this one here. "You're beautiful at 14.
I really love younger girls." What a sick pig.
"I bet you look extremely stunning in a bikini.
Age and distance doesn't bother me."
[tense music continues]
This is, like, four examples
of him talkin' to four different kids.
He clearly knows how old these kids are.
There's no doubt in my mind this guy is a predator.
Okay, so along with the messages that I got back
on the Twitter return,
they've also given me a whole bunch of IP addresses
where he's logged in using the account.
Got some that give me some
locations kind of around the city...
Um, just generally.
And then I've got another IP address
that comes up several times to a very specific
location here at the Kingsley Inn and Suites.
[tense music]
[Narrator] Detective Tony Godwin is hunting a child predator
known only as Eric.
His best lead is a local motel.
[Tony] So I head over to the Kingsley Inn.
I let them know that I have this ongoing investigation,
that I work crimes against children,
and some information has led me to them.
And I'm tryin' to make an inquiry about a specific date
and time range that I know that IP address
showed up on Eric's account.
And based on that information,
the person there at the Kingsley Inn is able
to tell me that lines up with one
of their long term residents, Eric Grzywinski.
[tense music continues]
The minute the clerk shows me the driver's license photo
they have a copy of...
I see immediately that matches the profile for Eric.
[suspenseful music]
[Tavie] He's had some serious history,
including aggravated sexual assault of a child.
He's a lifetime registered sex offender.
[suspenseful music continues]
Big huge red flag.
My priority right now is to get an arrest warrant
for Mr. Grzywinski and get him into custody.
And at that point, I put together an arrest team.
[suspenseful music continues]
[Narrator] Tony discovers that Grzywinski is working
with a maintenance crew on the outskirts of Dallas.
His arrest could turn dangerous fast.
[Tony] You know, the guy's already been convicted once,
and he's a registered sex offender.
He could turn violent at the drop of a hat.
[suspenseful music continues]
Takedowns are really stressful days.
You never really know if they're gonna go right
or they're gonna go wrong.
I give it to the best people I have on my takedown team
because this is what they do all day, every day.
-[suspenseful music continues] -[sirens blare]
[Narrator] Tony sends two squad cars to arrest Grzywinski.
The plan is to approach him
when he's isolated from the rest of his work crew.
[Tony] The element of surprise is always our best advantage.
I mean, he's not gonna know what hit him.
[suspenseful music continues]
It was actually really kind of friendly with the guys.
I just don't think it's registering
in his brain at this point what it's about.
[suspenseful music continues]
I'm grateful that the guy's happy and relaxed and chill,
but I'm also expecting it could change on a dime.
[tense music]
This dude is, like, in super chill mode.
Yeah, he kind of acts like, uh,
we're at a bar drinkin' a beer or somethin', like, we're just
a couple of friends talkin', and I'm fine with him thinking
that we're going to get along and do this well,
because I just want him to open up and tell me everything.
[Tony] He blames his pedophilia on boredom?
Give me a break. That is nothing but an excuse.
[Tony] So this guy had a visceral reaction.
He does a "oh," like he's shocked
by the words that he wrote.
What a joke.
He finally admits that this is a problem.
He agrees with me, but he's not really takin' it very seriously.
This guy's treatin' it like it's a freakin' speeding ticket.
[Narrator] Detective Tony Godwin interviews
child predator Eric Grzywinski.
So what he's basically just admitted
to is soliciting child pornography by having
that child produce something that's illegal.
You know, the fact he tries to dismiss this?
"Well, the child is 17."
That doesn't make any difference.
In terms of child pornography...
production, transportation, distribution...
All of those are for kids under the age of 18.
And so that's a federal crime.
[Tony] At this point, I'm sick of talkin' to this guy.
The child in Alabama...
I'm gonna refer to her as Olivia,
but that's not her real name.
My priority now is to figure out who Olivia is,
how old Olivia is, and just how long this has been goin' on.
This is a real live victim, and I've gotta find her.
[Narrator] Tony's team analyzes the text
conversations between Grzywinski and several underage girls.
They look for clues that could identify
which one of them is Olivia.
[Tony] I found a conversation that started in June of 2019.
There are very explicit sexual images.
So I do a Facebook search and I come up with a bunch of results.
[suspenseful music]
[Narrator] Tavie compares the Facebook profiles
of girls who could be Olivia with the photos recovered
from Grzywinski's phone.
[Tavie] So I'm scrolling, and eventually I get lucky enough
to find an image that matches what I've seen in these chats.
[suspenseful music continues]
It's the same girl.
So Tavie gets back to me with the child's profile,
and within a few minutes,
I'm able to get ahold of her parents.
[gentle music]
The mother tells me that Olivia is intellectually disabled,
and her mental capacity is around
an eight- or nine-year-old.
Not only is Grzywinski talking to a child,
he's talking to one who's extremely vulnerable
because of her challenges.
Even more proof that this guy is absolutely sick
and needed to go to jail.
I see and hear a lot of things in this job.
Some things don't even shock me anymore,
but this really blew me away.
[intense music]
[suspenseful music]
[Narrator] July 2019: Tony's team raids a property
linked to sharing child sexual abuse material.
[Tony] The biggest piece of evidence I need
to find is the device that uploaded those files.
That's the crux of this investigation.
[Narrator] When Tony comes face-to-face with his target,
he seizes an opportunity
to infiltrate a network of predators.
Carlos Tamez...
This guy we call The Download Deviant. Why?
Because he downloaded so much child sex abuse material
from the internet,
we have to move fast on him.
We can't run the risk that he's going
to delete stuff and get rid of evidence.
So I have to plan a pre-dawn raid, which brings in a whole
host of problems and issues that we have to deal with.
Guys like this... We have to act with urgency.
He's just one step
away from doin' somethin' with a real kid.
[tense music]
In 2017, I get two cyber tips from NCMEC concerning
an IP address that downloaded three CSAM files.
[Narrator] NCMEC stands for the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children.
It alerts law enforcement
to potential online crimes that involve minors.
In July of 2019, I get a total of nine cyber tips
from NCMEC concerning this same IP address.
And the scary part is,
there was 145 CSAM files
that were uploaded into a Google folder.
The problematic thing is this those who are watchers
may not all be doers, but those who are doers
all started out as bein' a watcher.
Here's the other problem.
It's super simple, as this escalation shows,
that they could slip into real world.
They could do something hands on with a real kid,
and it's on our watch.
It's important that we move on this now.
[tense music continues]
The cyber tip provides us a name
of the account holder and his name is Carlos Tamez.
[tense music continues]
So based on the information I have,
I do some searches through law enforcement databases.
As a result, I'm able to find a driver's license for this guy.
[tense music continues]
What I see is a Hispanic male, about 30 years old.
[tense music continues]
I'm closing in on the predator.
[tense music continues]
[Narrator] Detective Tony Godwin plots how
he can capture both Carlos Tamez and the phone Tamez
used to share child sexual abuse material.
[Tony] The biggest piece of evidence
I need to find is the device that uploaded those files.
That's the crux of this investigation.
If I go to Tamez's house and arrest him,
will the device be there or has he been sharing
the material using a different device at another location?
[Narrator] Tony enlists digital analyst Tavie Guthrie
to pinpoint a location where he can find
both Carlos Tamez and his phone.
[suspenseful music]
So on this particular cyber tip,
we see a wide range of IP addresses,
and this is letting us know
that he's moving around using his cell phone,
showing us all these different locations.
But I did notice that there was one IP address
that showed up multiple times.
I discovered that those belonged to a T-Mobile account.
So I subpoenaed that account through T-Mobile.
[Narrator] The subpoena returned identifies the residence
in North Dallas.
It's Tony's best lead to find Tamez
and his phone at the same location.
The subscriber named
on the T-Mobile account is Jackie J.
You know, at this point,
I need to figure out... Who's Jackie J?
What's the relationship with Carlos Tamez?
My default is to go back to the Tamez driver's license.
It shows an emergency contact: Jackie.
So what that tells me is either
he's in a relationship with Jackie,
or is she some sort of family member,
and they potentially live together.
I get an arrest warrant and a search warrant
for Carlos Tamez and his residence.
The goal is to do a pre-dawn raid.
Worst case scenario: he's not there, but other people are...
Is that they now tip him off that the cops are here.
All my evidence is gone, probably gets chucked in a lake.
There's so many variables that can make this go wrong.
So we've gotta time this perfectly.
[suspenseful music]
[indistinct]
[Tony] There's an element of danger that does exist.
But at the end of the day, this is the job we do.
Some guys got long guns. We got pistols.
Texas is really strong gun state.
A lotta people own guns.
Safety is our first priority.
[tense music]
[knocking on door]
[Tony] When you're outta time and you've got to get yourself
into a property, the slammer is absolutely what you need.
You have to be really close
when you're gonna barrel up and hit that door.
We're usin' it to bust the lock on the door.
Oh, yeah. It's heavy.
[Tony] I see this bleary-eyed woman
who's just been thrust out of bed.
I'm assuming this is Jackie J.,
the same lady that T-Mobile said is a subscriber
and who pays the bill,
and who I believe is the partner of Carlos Tamez.
And I ask her what her name is,
and she tells me her name is Carol.
[Narrator] A later investigation finds no
evidence that Carlos Tamez abused Carol's daughter.
She explains to me that Tamez and Jackie J. Broke up
and moved out and she's only been there
for a couple of weeks.
I'm like, totally bummed.
I've gotta figure out where he is, track him down.
I mean, there's so many things
that are runnin' through my mind.
[Narrator] Tony's operation is in jeopardy
after a pre-dawn raid finds no trace of the predator.
[Tony] When she tells me they'd moved out recently...
What a huge letdown that is.
It's frustrating. It makes me angry.
But then I get a massive break.
I'm able to find a phone number for Jackie
and I call her direct.
[Narrator] Jackie has no knowledge of Tamez's crime.
[Tony] Jackie reaches out to Tamez
and tells him he needs to come to the apartment.
[suspenseful music]
[Narrator] 20 minutes pass...
[suspenseful music continues]
No sign of Tamez.
[suspenseful music continues]
[Tony] It's gettin' a little bit anxious.
It's a little bit on edge at this point.
[suspenseful music continues]
But then Tamez arrives on the property.
This is Christmas in July.
This never happens.
Usually I'm in the wind lookin' for this guy for months.
My uniformed guys hand me his cell phone.
I'm able to turn that over to my forensic guy
to make some determination of what exactly is on that device.
[Narrator] The analysis takes 60 minutes.
Tony's forensic specialist reveals the results of the scan.
My forensic guy tells me he found two video files
of children being sexually abused.
And both of those children
appear to be under the age of six.
I place him under arrest at this point,
and he's transported to the detention center.
[suspenseful music continues]
Cheese pizza is a rip on the initials CP,
which stands for child pornography,
a kind of an unwritten code to avoid detection.
Now I wanna know what level of involvement does Tamez have?
Is he just storing the material that he gets from that group,
or is he transporting that material,
meaning, is he getting material and giving it to other users?
I always wanna find the person that is producing this material
or possessing larger amounts of this material.
I see this as an opportunity for me to infiltrate this group.
[Tony] There's definitely an element of his mindset
that it could help him if he cooperates.
It does lead to a bigger fish.
Maybe it gains him some favor in the court or the judge.
I have no doubt that that's something
he's cognizant and aware of.
[suspenseful music continues]
So I'm able to join the Kik group that Tamez was a member
of posing as Tamez and now I've got this opportunity
to potentially get a bigger fish.
There's always risk.
He's very low-level in this group.
A new guy is now runnin' the show.
He has no idea who Carlos Tamez was or is,
and that's what happened in this case.
And I'm not able to arrest
the higher ups within that food chain.
But I gather really valuable intel.
[intense music]
The Tamez case highlights that predators
will use all sorts of platforms like Kik,
because they have some anonymity with this and they also will
be sharing child sex abuse material with anyone.
Parents, make sure you're educating your kids not
to download anything that's in a link or a folder or a file
that they don't know anything about.
A message to you, predators:
you may think that you're anonymous,
that you can't be found,
but everything you do online leaves a trace.
And know this: I will follow that trace.
I will find you and I will lock you up.
[suspenseful music continues]