Original subtitles

The following program documents

real law enforcement investigations

of child sexual predators.

This deeply disturbing content

may be triggering for some viewers.

Please watch with care.

Next, Detective Tony Godwin and his team investigate

a suspect with top-level security clearance.

He was on Air Force Two, the plane of the vice president

of the United States.

Hey, it's the police. Open up.

Then, a new lead-- a man suspected of tricking

underage kids into performing on their webcams.

I have a complete, full description of you,

more than you think I would want to know.

Not with my [bleep]. I don't show my [bleep].

It doesn't get any worse.

Detectives on scene contacting a subject at the gas pumps.

And the team comes face-to-face with

one of the boldest predators it's ever encountered.

We got you, Dugefresh.

Get on the ground!

A team of police professionals

in North Dallas has one goal.

Get out of the car!

Take down online predators

before they harm a real child.

Child predators are everywhere.

Online predators pose

the biggest danger to America's children today.

Kids are being targeted at an alarming rate.

This team is opening its case files

for the first time

to show you how it tracks them down...

All right, he's coming this way.

...and brings them to justice by any means necessary.

Put your hands on the car.

This is Detective Tony Godwin,

and his team is...

the Predator Hunters.

March 12, 2010.

Detective Tony Godwin watches

a live feed from Las Vegas Airport.

This predator thinks he's meeting

a 14-year-old girl for sex...

...after grooming her for weeks with texts...

...and late night calls.

What he doesn't know, Tony's team is moving in.

It's one of the most dangerous operations it's ever attempted.

I've caught predators from all walks of life.

But the one with the most surprising background

is this guy, Darryl Walizer.

This guy held a really trusted position

in the U.S. military.

But then, his deviant desires kicked in.

To stop him, I had to call in some help from out of state

to pull off a high-risk takedown.

The Walizer case happens in 2010.

At the time, I'm looking at online chat rooms.

The kids absolutely love them.

They love the fact that they're kind of hidden.

They can say anything they wan.

There's a lot of freedom involved with that.

The flip side of that is this is also really good news

for someone who's a predator.

I start this undercover case

by creating a profile of a 14-year-old female

named Alecia.

I log in to Nevada One chat room.

I just sit and wait until a predator decides

he's gonna hit up on me. And it doesn't take long.

At 10:34 AM, I get a message from phoenix89032

with a coded message that says "A/S/L".

I know that to be age, sex, location.

This is just a very common opening question

that gets asked.

And I replied, "14, female, Texas. What about you?"

And he immediately replies back, "42, male, Las Vegas."

As soon as I said I was 14,

this guy should just disconnect and say,

hey, sorry, you're too young. But that's not what he does.

Because he says, "So you got a boyfriend, I'm sure."

And I tell him, "I did,

but he treated me like crap, so we broke up."

And he responds, "LOL, he didn't deserve you."

Then he starts to say things that really make me concerned.

It's really, really creepy behavior.

And it red flagged to me that he's done this before,

probably with real kids. Here's where he goes next.

Right there, the line in the sand is drawn.

This guy is an absolute predator.

Every once in a while, lady luck throws us a bone.

In this case, I received

a friend request from phoenix89032.

Once I accepted,

it immediately swapped his username

to his real name, Darryl Walizer.

It's a goof-up on his part? Absolutely, 1,000%.

And he's dumb enough to list his real name.

And he doesn't even know that it's displayed out there.

That's a big win for me.

Tony calls in fellow detective Clint McNear

to track down Darryl Walizer.

Initially, we need to help Tony

positively identify who this person is.

We need to know, are they dangerous?

Do they have a violent past?

Have they harmed other children, potentially?

Who are we dealing with?

I start by doing a background check on Darryl Walizer.

What we get back is a heap of information,

and none of it is good.

Darryl Walizer has two previous sex offenses against children.

The first goes back to 2004, Wayne County, Ohio,

solicitation of sex with a child.

Walizer did 10 months.

Not long after, 2005, we're in Bedford County, Virginia.

Walizer picks up yet another charge for solicitation.

We get his prison records, reveal his mugshot.

We get a picture of Darryl Walizer.

We now know what our man looks like.

We've got our guy.

My next step is to go through any news articles

and see if I may find anything related to Darryl Walizer.

And what I find is

one of the most remarkable backgrounds on an offender

that we've had yet.

Darryl Walizer served 18 years in the Air Force.

During that service, he was on Air Force Two,

the plane of the vice president of the United States,

all the while committing some of these offenses

and preying on these children.

His 2004 charge in Wayne County, Ohio

ends his military career.

Walizer's got history.

Tony must move quickly

to prevent him from harming a real child.

It's now that Walizer drops a bombshell.

I'm prepared for this

because this is a really common thing

that these freaks need,

to hear the voice of a young girl

who they envision in their mind that they're talking to.

Tony enlists fellow detective Danielle May

to be the voice of Alecia.

Tony came to me and asked me

if I would be interested in helping him provide a voice.

He needs voices to create the realness of the chats

that he's been doing online.

Danielle can sound like

a pretty convincing 14-year-old on the phone,

so I exchange cell phone numbers with Walizer.

And what I need to do now is have Danielle speak to him.

So, like, just before this call happens with Walizer,

like, internally, what's going on?

Is it a combination of fear and scared or nervous or what?

Fear. Yeah, I'm nervous. I'm grossed out.

- But I know I gotta do it. - You ready?

Let's fire it up.

Walizer is one of the worst

that I've spoken to

that just shamelessly and quite directly

showed his intent-- bad intent.

I know it's a necessary evil.

I know this is perfect for our case.

But watching you is really difficult.

Don't worry about that.

This moment of uncomfortableness is completely worth it.

At this point, he's not hiding it.

He's not hesitating.

I need to get him off the streets fast.

Time to set the trap.

Detective Tony Godwin is hunting Darryl Walizer.

The child predator has taken the bait.

Tony's next step is to set the trap.

He is so convinced now that Alecia is real.

He just goes all in.

Like, he's just texting for hours and hours.

And all of this really significant

sexual deviant conversation,

it just simply confirms in my mind,

like, I need to start putting something together now.

I need to organize a takedown.

The problem with Walizer is he's never coming to Texas.

He's got priors, and he's not allowed

to leave the Las Vegas area.

If he can't come here to see Alecia,

then I'll take her to him.

I put a plan together for this takedown

to happen on the first day of spring break.

Tony contacts law enforcement in Las Vegas.

They connect him with Special Agent Marty Yates.

I get a call from Detective Tony Godwin,

and he explains to me that he works in

Internet crimes against children.

Said that he had met a guy online,

someone that's in the Las Vegas area,

that has expressed a desire to meet a 14-year-old girl.

That clock starts ticking.

Alecia has indicated

her mom is gonna go do some gambling

at a local casino, which has a movie theater,

and that while her mom is gambling,

she's gonna attend a movie.

And that's where she could meet Walizer.

Walizer is so, like, amped up and ready for this.

He's just so emotionally charged.

He actually suggests that

we have sex right there in the movie theater.

It's not gonna be difficult to keep him on the hook.

The plan is for Marty's team

to take down Walizer at the movie theater.

Alecia tells Walizer

that she will fly to Las Vegas the day before.

The predator's response changes everything.

If he goes to the airport

and doesn't see Alecia, the case is blown.

I have no choice

but to organize a takedown at the airport.

An airport is probably the worst location to try

some sort of a takedown.

There are thousands of passengers coming and going.

It's the worst case scenario in my mind.

I'm not there.

I have no control over anything that's gonna happen.

Marty and his team wait for two hours.

Then at 8 PM, they spot their target.

When I see Walizer walking into the terminal,

from a law enforcement standpoint, you start to think,

OK, well, now what's gonna go wrong?

We have five agents on the terminal floor.

I have Las Vegas Metro Police Department.

I can feel the tension.

Walizer is constantly scanning every angle.

All it would take is for Walizer to look up

and see two or three people looking at him, and he's gone.

Once Alecia's flight lands,

I send a text message

to let Walizer know that I'm there.

I call for the takedown.

One Metro officers approach him.

And then another, and then another.

They just put the handcuffs on him.

Thank goodness no one got hurt.

We got him. We got him.

As this arrest is taking place,

I am on a phone call with Mart.

I'm hearing noises.

At one point, I hear some thumping,

and then I hear this sort of guttural,

"No! Not again!"

I'm walking behind the two agents

that are escorting him to their police station.

And the entire time, Walizer is screaming.

He knows he got caught.

He knew that the little voice in the back of his head,

that he ignored or couldn't pay attention to, was right.

I get Walizer into the police station,

and he's just so defeated and just caves.

One of his lines was,

"I don't have anyone else to blame but myself."

It's September 19, 2023.

Tony's team prepares to raid the home of a predator.

Hey, it's the police.

Can you open up?

The guy that lives in this apartment

is screen recording vulnerable minors

and rewarding them with gifts.

He has no idea that his sick enterprise

is about to come crashing down.

I have a complete full description of you,

more than you think I would want to know.

Not with my [bleep]. I don't show my [bleep].

Predators are always looking for

to exploit minors online.

Take this guy, Joel Silverman.

He used a live chat platform to groom a minor

from the other side of the United States.

This guy gave money and gifts to a child in order

to get them to do things online and buy their silence.

We had to take him down.

This case begins on the 28th of August, 2023.

I get a call from Detective Saronin,

a thousand miles away in Minnesota.

He's just spoken to a mom who's worried

her daughter is talking to a guy online.

Detective Saronin subpoenaed Snapchat

for an ID on this guy's profile.

The suspect's name is Joel Silverman,

and he's in my jurisdiction.

The mother's report points to this guy, Joel,

being engaged in seriously illegal behavior with minors.

Detective Saronin sends Tony

a recording of the mother's call to the police.

This hits me right in the gut.

It literally makes me sick to my stomach.

Detective Tony Godwin reviews

a call to police from a mother in Minnesota.

A predator in Texas is grooming her daughter

to perform sex acts online.

The detectives at Moorhead PD in Minnesota

then interview the 13-year-old Silverman has been grooming.

Omegle connects strangers on live video.

It's over 18s only.

But curious minors do use it.

They don't store any chats.

They don't store any information.

And you're anonymized.

So that's problematic for us.

It sickens me to hear her talk about this.

That's sexual performance by a child under 14.

That's a first-degree felony in Texas.

It doesn't get any worse.

My team and I, we dig in on Joel Silverman.

And we start using open source sites.

We use websites, databases, everything we can

to find out everything there is to know about him,

where he lives, where he works, and a pattern of life.

I have to make an affirmative link between

the Amazon purchases that were made

for this child by Joel Silverman.

So I issue a subpoena to Amazon to confirm

the information I already have.

And they drive me right to Silverman's address.

It's time for Joel to face justice.

Tony secures a warrant to search Silverman's apartment.

Key to my plan is to bring in my partner,

Robert Golladay.

He's a member of the task force with me.

He's also a digital forensic examiner.

So this is Joel Silverman.

He doesn't have any real criminal history.

He's not a violent guy.

Nothing to indicate he's been violent at all.

I think it'd probably be best if we send the team up

to knock the door, and then when you get in,

you can add hand him off to me at my truck.

I'll bring him to you.

I'll secure his electronic devices.

And then I'll conduct a search

and get back with you on what I find.

It's go time.

Hey, it's the police. Can you open up?

Hello?

Yeah, can you open up?

How you doing? How you doing?

- Are you Joel? - No.

Do you mind stepping out for me?

Joel live here?

Hey, Joel, come on out, buddy.

No, no, no.

- Come on back here. - What's wrong?

Come on out here just a minute.

- Oh, OK. - Right on out here.

- Joel is your first name, right? - Yes.

- What's your middle name? - Uh, Silverman.

Uh, Lemuel Silverman.

OK, do you go by Joel or Lemuel?

"Jo-el".

"Jo-el," I'm sorry. Well, my name's Tony.

Hi, Tony.

I want to have a conversation with you as to why we're here.

Um...

I have some very specific questions.

OK.

Do I have a warrant for my arrest?

Uh...

- We're gonna talk about that. - Oh, OK.

The evidence of Silverman's crimes

is locked inside his digital devices.

Tony sends Detective Golladay

into the apartment to secure them.

Tony's talking to Silverman.

I walk around the apartment.

I find Silverman's bedroom.

No, right here.

His computer is connected to three computer screens

and several storage drives.

We're going to secure them so that he can't receive

a wipe command and destroy evidence.

Silverman's online in an Omegle chat with a female.

He could be committing another crime because he's recording

the person on the other end maybe without their knowledge.

Detective Tony Godwin grills

Joel Silverman about grooming minors

on the video chat site Omegle.

Did you communicate with a child online

in a sexual way?

In a sexual way?

- I have. - OK.

In the past? Currently? How many times?

Um...

On Omegle, yes.

What's the youngest you think you've ever talked to?

Young-- 14, 15.

Do you record it?

I do.

I want to be more confrontational,

but I can't be.

It doesn't benefit me to do that.

I've learned that over the years.

I just let him hang himself with his own words

that will be documented heavily and highly after the fact.

Here's what I know. I know you talked to a girl.

I know she was 13.

I know that she live streamed with you.

- I know that you masturbated. - No.

She de-- Yes, shes

Trust me when I tell you.

I have a complete full description of you,

more than you think I would want to know.

Not with my [bleep]. I don't show my [bleep].

That's the honest truth.

Have you ever paid any of the girls?

- Paid? - Paid them.

I give them gifts.

- Like? - Uh, Amazon gift cards.

How much?

Forty to eighty dollars.

Each time or?

Uh, just, just to, just to, um...

kinda like, thank you.

Or like, hey, you deserve this, you know?

The fact that Silverman thanks these children for being paid

for the sex acts that they've done for his gratification

makes my stomach sick.

He has done so much damage

and has absolutely no clue that he's done that.

Inside Silverman's apartment,

Detective Golladay completes his scan

of the suspect's computer.

I find a whole treasure trove of evidence.

A lot of incriminating images and videos.

I also find a video of the minor

that he was communicating with from Minnesota.

He was clearly filmed without her consent.

I get a message from Detective Golladay

to let me know what he's found,

and I can make the arrest any time I'm ready.

I was told that they did find some things.

You are gonna be arrested.

You will get transferred to Dallas County.

The charge is pretty heavy, I'm not gonna lie to you.

It's called sexual performance of a child under 14,

and that's pretty serious.

Pretty serious.

I'm sorry, I just...

Silverman is just blubbering and crying.

But he's calculated.

He's manipulating every situation

for his own sexual gratification and benefit.

Every purchase he makes, every request he has,

every bit of it just further exploits kids.

He has no regard for any of that,

and that's really, truly the sad fact.

The Silverman case is an excellent example of how

a vigilant parent can detect and stop an online predator.

The victim's mother recognized that something was wrong

and contacted law enforcement to prevent Silverman

from harming her child and other children.

If you're a parent, follow the mother's example.

Engage with your child about their use of the Internet

and ask questions when things don't feel right.

August 3, 2023.

Detective Tony and his team stake out a gas station.

We are here to wait for

the arrival of Kenneth Douglas Rosenbaum.

His vanity name is Dugefresh.

He's a brazen predator, yet cautious.

It takes Tony weeks to lure him out into the open

and force him to face up to his crime.

This guy, Doug Rosenbaum, from the first contact,

his deviant sexual intentions were clear.

His grooming skills showed me that he was

an experienced predator that's just never been caught.

We had to go slow to lure this guy from the shadows,

and when it looked like he was about to emerge,

he threw us a curveball that had us scrambling.

Hunting predators is no 9-to-5 job.

Tony communicates at all hours of the day and night

to make them believe his undercover identities

are real.

On July 27th of 2023, I started an online proactive

undercover investigation on a platform called Chat Hour.

Chat Hour is a social media network

that you can message people individually.

You can be in a group chat.

There's a lot of predatory behavior that happens on there.

Real kids have been victimized on this platform,

which is why I'm doing a proactive case here.

I set up this profile using the name Bailey,

a 14-year-old female from the Dallas, Texas area.

Tony cannot reveal Bailey's profile picture.

He uses it today

in active investigations to catch predators.

She's got her tongue sticking out.

It's just a selfie of her.

I put myself out there, and I just wait and see what happens.

At 9.15 PM, I got a message, private direct message,

from a user named Dugefresh.

Really?

You're gonna look at an innocent picture

of a 14-year-old girl who's just got her tongue sticking out

and turn it sexual right off the bat?

I mean, classic predator behavior.

He takes that innocent picture,

uses it for his own sexual gratification.

Really disturbing.

This guy's a predator. It's time for me to dig in.

No, Doug. That's not okay.

You're a grown-ass man wanting

to have sex with a 14-year-old kid?

What are you thinking?

You should take this opportunity to walk away,

but I don't think you're gonna do that.

Time for me to figure out more about Dugefresh.

Detective Tony Godwin is using an undercover profile

to communicate with a child predator called Dugefresh.

After about four days of this back and forth,

I suggest we move out of the chat room on Chat Hour,

and we try something a little bit more direct.

Now, at this point,

I give him my undercover number.

It tracks everything that I do.

It documents everything for me.

It's a best-case scenario.

As soon as I give him that number,

he text messages me right off the bat.

My day's doing a lot better today, Doug.

Thank you. I got your phone number now.

Now I'm gonna figure out who you are.

Tony enlists digital analyst Tavie Guthrie

to unmask Dugefresh.

Tony gives me a cell phone number.

First thing I do is just check our local database.

The DMV is showing me his DL photo

and the name Kenneth Douglas Rosenbaum.

So I guess Dugefresh is

a play on Douglas, his middle name.

We got you, Dugefresh.

This is our guy, Kenneth Douglas Rosenbaum.

His cell phone puts him in Pottsboro, Texas.

But I've got another address in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

His priors say he's got a DUI.

If Tony takes him down,

he just needs to know that when he gets there,

we don't have a registered vehicle for him.

So he doesn't know what he's getting.

Um--oh, and Dugefresh, he is not 55.

He's 60.

Now that we've moved to text messaging, Rosenbaum is--

he's on fire.

He's blowing up the phone all day, all night.

I have to keep reminding him that he's talking to a kid

because I have legal requirements

that I need to meet in order for

the prosecution of a case to be successful.

But that doesn't deter him.

He sends it kind of flippantly, like he's joking,

but the reality is he's not joking at all.

This guy is texting me all day, every day.

No such thing as a day off.

I can't even enjoy my soda in peace.

Dugefresh texts again.

This time he's a bit more cautious.

"So it didn't bother you when I said I would wash your back

"and dry you off last night?

"Sometimes I say stuff I'm thinking about

that maybe I shouldn't."

These predators, they know what they're doing.

They know this attraction to children

is completely wrong, but they have moments when

they're not thinking so clearly

about their own deviant feelings.

Dugefresh says, "To be honest,

"I'm not attracted to women my age.

"They're boring.

I like to be spontaneous, do daring things, have fun."

Well, clearly, we understand

you're not attracted to people your own age, Dugefresh,

which is why you're trying

to groom and sexually molest this child.

I kind of just play along with him at this point.

What I need from Doug now is to show

what his real intention is,

and that's to meet in real life.

And I don't have to wait long.

I've got this guy right where I want him.

Rosenbaum agrees to meet Bailey

at an apartment complex in North Dallas.

Tony assembles his team to take him down.

Next thing I know, Rosenbaum sends a message,

which is a little bit of a problem.

Delaying the meeting a few hours means it's gonna be

getting dark when he arrives.

We have to think on the fly and readjust.

This predator, he can do anything he wants.

So I got to make it where it's safe

for us and for him and for everybody else.

I know that this gas station,

even at night, is really well lit.

It's a real good substitute for our location

to take him down if it's gonna happen in the hours of darkness.

But he's really been cautious.

And I'm hoping, like, a little last minute change like this

isn't gonna, like, freak him out

and make him, you know, not show up.

It's 8:29 PM. We've moved locations.

We're watching that Chevron gas station.

I believe he's coming from Dallas,

but we do not know what kind of vehicle he's driving, so...

By 8:45 PM, he still has not shown.

I am quite on edge.

Did I say something that caused this no show?

He tells me he's pulling up.

But there's not one car in that gas station.

That statement is untrue.

He is not pulling up because I have a complete visual

on the whole place.

So I'm in a bit of a panic.

Detective Tony Godwin and his team

stake out a gas station.

They're waiting for Douglas Rosenbaum,

the child predator who calls himself Dugefresh.

This is Detective Godwin the 3rd of August, 2023.

Uh, Mr. Doug, "Dugefresh,"

has indicated that he is in the area.

Says he's here in this, uh, parking lot of the Chevron.

So stand by. We'll see if it's him.

I need more information on his vehicle.

So I text him again.

I'm not seeing a red truck, no.

Um...

By the time I do see a vehicle come in,

it's not red, and it's not a truck.

The message is really risky for me to send

because it could blow up in my face.

But at this point, I have nothing to lose.

10:18 PM, I get a message.

The subject is at the location.

We have detectives on scene

contacting the subject at the gas pumps.

All right, sir.

Can you get him out of here as quick as possible?

Hey, Brown, they want him out of here,

um, online solicitation of a minor.

Yes!

Now, it's time to speak to Mr. Rosenbaum.

I have a lot of experience in this arena.

And I've perfected this craft over the course of my career.

And I need to gather a little bit of information from you.

Tell me your full name, sir?

I come in nice and non-confrontational.

I'm in the hopes that he might open up.

What brought you to Texas today?

OK. Talking online.

OK.

Did you talk about having sex with this girl?

When I challenge him, he has that realization.

He, like, grabs his forehead

in this, like, oh [bleep] moment.

"I'm in so much trouble."

You talked about having-- doing sex acts with her.

- But yeah, yeah. - Right?

Yeah.

I mean...

But you know talking in a sexually graphic way

with a child is also a crime, right?

How he's able to spin that up in his own mind...

He's a grown-ass 60-year-old man.

He absolutely knows what he did is a crime.

You do get and understand

that any kind of touch that's sexual in nature,

any kind of oral, you know that's a crime, right?

With a child.

Is your phone passcode protected or have a swipe pattern on it?

OK.

Is there child pornography on your phone?

OK.

You're not convicted of anything, Doug.

Well, other than those--

If I'd have gone at him just hard and heavy from the start,

he would have clammed up in a moment.

And now he's admitted

to having child sex abuse material on his phone.

At this point, I have absolutely everything

I need to convince a judge and a jury.

At the end of the day, he could just stop talking

right now because I've got him. He's going to prison.

Douglas Rosenbaum never stands trial.

On March 29, 2024, he takes his own life in jail.

He made his choices.

I carry the weight, but I don't carry the guilt.

My job is to save kids.

The Rosenbaum case shows that

even though the messaging platform--

in this case, Chat Hour-- is geared towards adults,

it's easto gain access. teenager

to protecting children online

the age restrictions

on the child's device.

Rosenbaum was brazen about his sexual interest

from the very first message he sent.

So prevention is the key.

Online predators can't reach children if those children avoid

the places where predators lie in wait.

And for those predators who are lying in wait,

we will find you.

It's just a matter of time.