TAVARES, Florida—A Windermere man who lived in Clermont in October turned himself in at the Lake County Jail Thursday on a warrant for two counts possession child pornography.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Timothy Ray Holmes, 37, messaged a Walton County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) detective who was acting as an underage decoy on the app, Whisper on Oct. 14. Holmes asked the detective for a photo, and she sent him a photo of an employee who was 14 or 15 years old at the time the photo was taken and told Holmes she was 13. Holmes advised he was 37.
The conversation continued through Oct. 26 and Holmes identified himself to be a 37-year-old military veteran named Tim; he sent who he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, six unsolicited photos of his penis and asked for sexual photos of the girl. The WCSO detective subpoenaed subscriber information for the IP address used to message the detective and found it belonged to Holmes at his apartment on Town Center Boulevard.
A Lake County judge granted a search warrant on Feb. 14 for Holmes’ apartment and on Feb 16, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent contacted Holmes and met him in the parking lot of his apartment complex, the affidavit states.
Holmes admitted using the Whisper app to communicate with who he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, admitted sending photos of his penis and asking the girl to take sexual photos of herself.
Holmes said the situation was a “lapse in judgment, stupid on his part” and “just conversations and he never met the decoy in person. Holmes handed over his phone and spontaneously told agents they would find photos of a 10-year-old girl in the Anon Chat app. Agents found a sexually explicit photo of a young girl and ended the preview of the device so they could obtain a search warrant for the phone, according to the affidavit. An additional photo was found after a forensic search of the phone.
A Warrant was issued for Holmes’ arrest Wednesday, and he turned himself into the Lake County Jail Thursday, where he was released on $4,000 bond.
