A Federal complaint was filed against the man who sent messages to a Tacoma woman he met online to do sexual acts to two children under her care. Some of the text messages that the two sent and received from each other were detailed in the complaint.
Earlier, authorities already identified the suspects as 56-year-old Michael Kellar and 50-year-old Lynn Burnworth. They are both from Tacoma, Washington. During the time of the exchange of texts, Kellar was on board a plane that was bound to San Jose, California. Burnworth, on the other hand, was at home taking care of two kids.
They then talked about trying to drug the kids in order to molest them.
This case has gained attention because a preschool teacher who was sitting behind Kellar during the two-hour flight glanced at the text messages. She snapped photos of the conversations of Kellar and Burnworth then alerted authorities.
What the complaint contains
Per the federal complaint, Kellar and Burnworth were charged with conspiracy to produce child pornography. CNN also reported that Kellar was charged with attempted enticement of a minor.
The couple allegedly planned to sexually abuse a seven-year-old and a five-year-old. Burnworth was living with her former husband and his new wife. Burnworth is not the mother of the children.
Aside from planning to drug the kids and sexually molest them, Burnworth also promised to take graphic photos and videos.
Kellar requested the videos
Kellar was the one who requested the videos from Burnworth. He also wanted to get videos showing bestiality and fetish behavior involving feces. Burnworth said that she and Kellar had sexual intercourse with fetish behavior involving feces, which they recorded several times.
Burnworth also told the investigators that she sexually assaulted and produced ten depictions of child pornography that involved one child. It was not stated in the federal complaint who the child is. As for the two minors that they planned to molest, Burnworth said she produced 15 to 20 depictions that involved them. The two kids were not harmed as police were able to get to the woman’s location before she did any of Kellar’s requests.
In one of the messages sent by Kellar, he asked Burnworth if she could really do it or is she just saying things. Burnworth answered back saying she thinks she can do it if she does not have the parents of the kids looking over her shoulder. She also said on July 28 that on July 30, she had the kids all by herself as the parents would not be home.
Burnworth also told investigators that Kellar backed out because he said he knew she would not go through with their plan. She also said that she had no access to the two kids during the time they exchanged messages. However, if they did push through with the plan, Burnworth said she would have let Kellar have sexual intercourse with one of the kids but she had to be drugged in order for her to allow him to do that.
Kellar, on the other hand, said that the messages were only fantasies.
Preschool teacher speaks out
The unidentified preschool teacher said that she did not know how she saw the messages but she saw the words “child in their underwear” in big text. She sensed that there was something else so she followed the exchange of messages between Kellar and Burnworth.
She said that her heart raced and her instinct told her to discreetly take photos of the messages. The preschool teacher also noted that people should stop labeling her as a hero as she is just happy that the kids are safe.
