PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — A Pierce County couple is accused of trying to kidnap a child and sell them for sex, and they allegedly had nearly 650 files of child sexual abuse on their digital devices.
According to investigators, William James Moore and Hailey Rose Davidson, both 28, stalked families with young children in hopes of drugging and kidnapping the kids.
Deputy Carly Cappetto with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said the planned kidnapping was imminent.
“That couple planned to kidnap a child and do horrific, sexual crimes with this child or exploit them and use them in sex trafficking-type crimes,” Cappetto said.
According to court documents, when detectives served a search warrant, they found several handwritten notes from Davidson to Moore about how they should go about the kidnapping.
“We have to make sure your DNA isn’t anywhere... no speaking the whole time so she doesn’t hear our voices, don’t want her to see us or hear us but I still think it would be better to bring her to our own,” one of the notes allegedly said, according to court documents.
Another detailed how they would do it, trying to figure out how they could get a car that wouldn’t point law enforcement officials to them, according to court documents.
“Drive normally! To the middle of no where I meet you there we put her in my car you jump in, into normal clothes act normal we take her to the shop we make sure she is knocked out the whole time do your thing wear all black make sure to wear gloves at all times grab your dads car act like it has been stolen,” court docs say another letter read.
Other elements of the notes included drugging the child and where they would stay-- considering keeping them in a large storage bin or storage unit, court docs said.
Investigation into child sex abuse material
When detectives served the search warrant, one of the things they found was “what appeared to be a shrine dedicated to child sexual abuse material,” court documents detail.
While searching their computer, detectives found several folders of images of child sex abuse, court docs allege. Court docs say the couple is accused of producing some of the images themselves.
Additionally, detectives found files and plans for the couple to find a family that they saw online (and didn’t know), and travel to their home in Wisconsin to abduct their daughters, docs said.
It also appears they considered young children of people they were acquainted with, according to court docs.
“Ms. Davidson indicated that Mr. Moore even brought the crushed Trazedone along a couple of times when they were around [aforementioned friend] and his children. She said that Mr. Moore considered drugging the whole family in order to get to the children,” court docs read.
Victims depicted in the images and in their alleged plans were younger than 11, with some being as young as 2-4 years old, documents allege.
According to court documents, a CyberTip reported uploads to Google of 469 files of child sex abuse materials in the span of a year, allegedly by the suspects.
Later in October, three additional CyberTips reported 177 more files uploaded, court documents say.
The arrests were the result of a three-month investigation.
“There was enough there that this was going to happen,” Cappetto said. “The fact that our team was able to get in there and prevent something from happening is pretty amazing.”
Cappetto said this was the work of PCSO’s newly revamped Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which is responsible for more than 20 arrests since its launch in January.
“The sad part that people need to understand is this has always been going on, but now we have a unit out there actively searching for it and making these arrests,” she said.
According to court docs, the pair’s alleged could go back as early as 2020.
Both Moore and Davidson have been charged with multiple crimes, including:
- First-degree attempted kidnapping
- First-degree attempted child molestation
- Four counts of first-degree possession of depictions of minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct
Davidson was additionally charged with four counts of dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Both are due in court in December.
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