Springfield, Missouri – An investigation is underway into a former Walmart employee charged with child sex crimes.
“Obviously, based on the nature of the crime, the length of time it has been going on, and the time span of about 10 years, I would say it is a very serious case,” said Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson. says so. “Defendant is currently being held without bail in Greene County Jail.”
Police say Craig Rhoden took explicit photos of his children while working at Walmart in Springfield.
“All child pornography cases are disturbing. This is certainly a place with so many images,” Patterson said. “It certainly upsets me when I read descriptions of the types of images. Within child pornography. But unfortunately the types you see here aren’t all that uncommon.”
Ozarksfirst.com has reached out to Walmart for a response.
“This person no longer works for us, leaving all other questions to the police report,” the retail giant said.
Rhoden’s activity will be reported by Dropbox in 2021 and by Yahoo! in 2022.
Some of the photos shared through the account included children as young as a few days old.
“The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a cyber chip line and electronic service providers, in this case Yahoo! I will voluntarily report it to their cyber hotline,” Patterson said. “That cyber hotline takes those tips and sends them to law enforcement for investigation.”
According to police, Roden uploaded the photos to a Russian website popularly known for sharing inappropriate images of children.
“Generally speaking, there is certainly the potential for this kind of investigation to lead to further investigation,” Patterson said.
Patterson said Roden could face more charges.
