The Brief<\/p>\n
Federal officials are searching for potential child exploitation victims in Tampa and Lakeland tied to a Tennessee man.<\/p>\n
Joseph Dalton Bowman faces multiple federal charges and was ordered detained following a court appearance.<\/p>\n
Authorities encourage anyone with information to contact the tip line or submit details online.<\/p>\n
TAMPA, Fla. – A Nashville man faces federal child exploitation charges as investigators search for potential victims in Tampa, Lakeland and other cities nationwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joseph Dalton Bowman, 32, was detained following a federal court appearance in Texas after a grand jury indicted him on three counts. If convicted, Bowman faces up to life in federal prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Federal investigation<\/p>\n
What we know<\/p>\n
Federal authorities are asking parents in the Tampa and Lakeland areas to come forward if they suspect their children had contact with Joseph Dalton Bowman.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Texas indicted the 32-year-old Nashville, Tennessee man on charges of coercion of a minor, production of child pornography and traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. Bowman appeared before U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant on Monday and was ordered detained. Investigators believe Bowman may have had contact with minors in person or through social media accounts, including “snapwithdalton,” across several states.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to Tampa and Lakeland, federal authorities say Bowman may have had contact with minors in:\u00a0<\/p>\n
North Chesterfield, Virginia<\/p>\n
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina<\/p>\n
Suspect details and search<\/p>\n
What we don’t know<\/p>\n
Authorities have not released the number of potential victims involved in the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It remains unknown how long the alleged activities occurred or how many total children were contacted online or in person.\u00a0<\/p>\n
National child safety initiative<\/p>\n
The backstory<\/p>\n
The case was brought under Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative created in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reporting suspicious contacts<\/p>\n
What you can do<\/p>\n
Anyone who suspects their child had contact with Bowman in person or online, is asked to call the HSI Tipline at 1-877-4-HSI-TIP.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tips can also be submitted through the HSI Online Tip Form<\/a> or the NCMEC CyberTipline<\/a>. Law enforcement officials stated they will take necessary measures to protect the identities and confidential information of all minors involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Source<\/p>\n The information in this story was gathered from U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs of the Eastern District of Texas, who announced the indictment and detention details, as well as official statements from Homeland Security Investigations and the Department of Justice.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Federal officials are searching for potential child exploitation victims in Tampa and Lakeland tied to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4858,32322,120120,92983,15186,146017,32791,104705,32137,146016,7154,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-357855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-child-exploitation","tag-department-of-justice","tag-eastern-district-of-texas","tag-federal-authorities","tag-federal-charges","tag-federal-child","tag-federal-court","tag-federal-grand-jury","tag-federal-prison","tag-joseph-dalton","tag-lakeland","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}