An Airline passenger, a female preschool teacher who remains unidentified, saved two kids, ages five and seven, from Sexual Molestation by reading the text messages of her fellow passenger. They were on board a two-hour flight from Seattle to San Jose.
The man was identified as 56-year-old Michael Kellar. The preschool teacher alerted the crew about what she read, and they responded by calling the authorities, The Washington Post reported. A woman, who was receiving and replying to Kellar's messages, was also arrested.
How the preschool teacher helped authorities foil Kellar’s plan
Initially, the preschool teacher was minding her own business, but she glanced upon some parts of the messages being sent and received by Kellar. The fonts on Kellar's phone were large-sized so even if the teacher was behind him, she could clearly read what the messages said. San Jose sex-crimes Detective Nick Jourdenais said that she finally alerted the crew after she snapped photos of the messages when the topic involved kids. In one of those messages, Kellar asked the woman on the other end to perform sex acts on the children she was babysitting.
Authorities waiting for Kellar after plane landed
Once the plane landed, San Jose police and San Francisco-based agents of the FBI met with Kellar and detained him for questioning.
He denied the allegations and let them read the messages without reservations. He pointed out that he and the woman, whom he met at an online dating site, were just role playing. Both Kellar and the woman are from Tacoma, and the woman was there at the time they were exchanging messages. Initially, police did not identify the woman but later confirmed she is 50-year-old Gail Burnworth.
San Jose Police Sgt. Brian Spears said that the kids were not harmed because they were able to rescue them even before Burnworth could perform sexual acts on them. Spears called the incident extremely disturbing and reiterated that if the preschool teacher let Kellar have his privacy, they would not have saved the kids from the damage that might have been done to them.
According to CNN, the woman was living at a residence with her ex-husband, his new wife, and three kids. It is unclear if the kids are hers or are the children of her ex-husband and his new wife, and if they were the kids that Kellar and Burnworth targeted.
Kellar, Burnworth face charges
Kellar is now detained in Santa Clara County and has been charged with two counts of attempted child molestation and two counts of solicitation of a sex crime. Burnworth is at the Pierce County jail in Washington and faces sexual exploitation of a minor, rape of a child, and dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually-explicit conduct.
