Stephen Cooper
Danny Moore
Posted on 12/10/2005 6:32:18 AM PST by Sybeck1
DeSoto County deputies seized boxes of videos and photographs of young girls posing nude from a farmhouse in western DeSoto County on Friday afternoon, including photos of a Hernando teen whose disappearance sparked an intensive search early this week.
Charged late Friday were Stephen C. Cooper, 36, with dissemination of sexually oriented material of a minor and Danny Wayne Moore, 48, with sexual battery. Both lived in the home. They are being held at the DeSoto County Jail in Hernando on $100,000 bond each.
Other charges are pending.
Investigators acting on a warrant also found whips, chains and handcuffs during a search that lasted more than four hours, as well as Xanax, marijuana and cocaine residue.
"This is going to turn into a fireball," said Cmdr. Mark Blackson, chief of detectives for the DeSoto County Sheriff's Department.
"We have boxes of videos we have not yet reviewed; we have rolls of undeveloped film ... and we have two computers that have not been checked to see what they might contain," Blackson said.
The search and seizures ended a week that began with a search for Ashley Dawn Ivy, a Hernando girl reported missing Sunday after she failed to return home from shopping Saturday afternoon.
Ashley, who turned 17 on Tuesday, was found at a Horn Lake home Monday night, where authorities said Friday she went voluntarily.
Blackson said Friday's search warrant was obtained because of cooperation from Ashley, who told police that she was given Xanax and then photographed nude at the house.
The house -- where Friday's search by six deputies, including two from the county's Metro Narcotics Squad, sparked curious looks and questions from passersby -- is at 6847 Old Miss. 301.
"She (Ashley) definitely was in that house," Blackson said. "We found photographs of her that had been taken in the house."
Officers also found photographs of another DeSoto County girl who complained in 2004 that she had been photographed nude at the house.
Blackson said investigators had questioned one of the two men taken into "investigative detention" at the house Friday in connection with the 2004 investigation, but he said there was never enough evidence to seek a search warrant.
He said Ashley went to the house voluntarily, and he could not establish that Ashley and the 16-year-old were forced to pose for the photos.
He said both girls said they were given drugs and then photographed.
"The drugs may have clouded their judgment," Blackson said. "It's a question for our district attorney and the grand jury whether the use of the drugs would have constituted force."
Investigators seized two video cameras, two 35-mm cameras and one digital camera.
Friday's search also turned up hundreds of photographs of "dozens of girls" Blackson could not identify.
He said the Internet may have been used to transmit the photographs and videos, but Blackson was careful to avoid using the word "pornography," saying at one point that "there is a thin line between pornography and art."
"We're going to have to haul all of this back to the Sheriff's Department, sit down and start going through it. We have nude photos, but I would not want to categorize them now," he said.
Federal investigators will be brought into the case if investigators can establish that the Internet was used to transmit pornographic photographs or if any of the photographs or videos were sent through the mail.
Meanwhile, the 1994 Toyota Camry that Ashley was driving Saturday was recovered early Thursday, Hernando Police Lt. Russell Perry said Friday.
Perry said the car has since been returned to its owner, who has only been identified as Ashley's boyfriend. The car, police have said, is registered to the boyfriend's ex-wife.
-- William C. Bayne: (901) 333-2012
Staff reporter Richard Thompson contributed to this story.
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Time Line
Dec. 3, 10:30 a.m.: Teenager Ashley Dawn Ivy drives away from her family's home in Deer Creek in Hernando to pick her sister up in Horn Lake to go shopping at the Fred's store there. She was driving a 1994 Toyota Camry that belongs to her boyfriend.
Dec. 3, 11:45 a.m.: Ashley drops off her sister after shopping and tells her she's going to get something to eat and drive around.
Dec. 3, 3:51 p.m.: Ashley returns a missed phone call from her mother.
Dec. 4, noon: Ashley's family contacts Hernando Police after she fails to come home.
Dec. 4, about 6 p.m.: Bonnie Ivy, Ashley's mother, receives the first of two ransom calls for Ashley's return.
Dec. 5, at 8 a.m.: Following the abductor's directions, Ashley's family - shadowed by the Hernando police - drop off an indeterminate amount of money at the Fred's in Hernando. But no one shows up.
Dec. 5, about 11 a.m.: A local alert about the abduction is issued.
Dec. 5, at 10:20 p.m.: Horn Lake police receive a DeSoto County Crimestoppers tip about Ashley's whereabouts. Seconds later, police find her and an unidentified male in a back room of a house on Smallwood Cove in the Twin Lakes subdivision. Officers said she did not appear hurt.
Dec. 6: Ashley's 17th birthday. DeSoto County Dist. Atty. John Champion holds a press conference and stresses that Ashley had not been abducted but had left on her own. In a televised interview, Ashley maintains that she was abducted and held at gunpoint.
Dec. 8, about 2 a.m.: Police find the car that Ashley drove Saturday "abandoned" on Miss. 301 and Nail Road near Twin Lakes subdivision. Police find evidence that aids in their investigation.
Dec. 9, about 2 p.m.: DeSoto County Sheriff's Department deputies serve a search warrant on a house at 6847 Old Miss. 301, discover nude photos of Ashley taken in the house, and take two suspects into investigative detention.
Copyright 2005, commercialappeal.com - Memphis, TN. All Rights Reserved.
This is from Desoto county, MIssissippi.
Mississippi ping
How is a kidnapping chat?
hit the abuse button and ask the mod why
it was moved to chat
What did you put it under when you posted?
News/activision
They'll be busy reviewing the tapes.
Abuse yourself and Ask the mod
I did.
It may be a month or never before you hear
back. It all depends on the "mood of the mod".
Pervs in Peril
Show me the pictures and I will decide.
The two in Post 11 are definitely not art!
Thanks for posting this article!
I caught a little of this on the TV, including
her interview, but didn't catch the entire story.
I've been wondering about it ever since.
Thanks for the ping!
"Pervs in Peril"
Perfect! ;o)
I see the Mod never moved this to news
They are a finicky bunch.
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