{"id":313872,"date":"2025-11-26T01:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T01:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/313872\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T01:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T01:36:10","slug":"brother-of-lds-apostle-federally-charged-with-alleged-sexual-abuse-of-two-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/313872\/","title":{"rendered":"Brother of LDS apostle federally charged with alleged sexual abuse of two children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4<\/a>) \u2014 The brother of Latter-day Saint apostle, President D. Todd Christofferson, has been charged with sexual exploitation crimes against minors.<\/p>\n

Documents show Wade S. Christofferson, 72, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail<\/a> on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, just before 8 p.m. According to the Salt Lake County Sheriff\u2019s Office, he was booked by the FBI on a warrant.<\/p>\n

According to public records obtained by ABC4, Wade S. Christofferson currently lives in Dublin, Ohio, and is the brother of President D. Todd Christofferson of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.<\/p>\n

In an obituary for Elder Christofferson\u2019s father<\/a>, Paul Christofferson, Wade is listed as a surviving child, along with D. Todd Christofferson.<\/p>\n

Wade Christofferson is being charged with at least 20 offenses including attempting to sexually exploit a minor with coercion and enticement.<\/p>\n

Charging documents allege Christofferson sexually abused a child in Dublin, Ohio. At the time of the alleged offense, the child was reported to be between 7 and 8 years old.<\/p>\n

The FBI is listed as the arresting agency involved in Christofferson\u2019s case. However, Salt Lake City\u2019s FBI field office declined to comment on the arrest.<\/p>\n

According to documents, Christofferson allegedly sexually abused the child 15 to 20 times. He also is accused of engaging in a sexually explicit FaceTime call with a second minor victim and sending \u201ccoded letters to her Utah home that referenced sexual activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

An affidavit claims Christofferson taught the 7-year-old Utah victim code words that indicated sexually explicit content. Letters include \u201cTop Secret\u201d messages and coupons. One of which read \u201cGood for one * game with me!! You get to choose the game!\u201d Police believe the asterisk to be a code for \u201cnaked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Law enforcement believes other symbols indicated other sexually explicit activities. For example, \u201cSS\u201d is believed to indicate \u201cSecret Spanks,\u201d and \u201cSnow\u201d was a codeword for female genitalia.<\/p>\n

During a search of Wade S. Christofferson\u2019s residence, an area of the home was found to have children\u2019s writing on the walls along with a mattress, pillows, and blankets, according to a Department of Justice press release.<\/p>\n

Police later found Christofferson\u2019s phone reportedly had \u201ccriminal defense attorneys sex crimes columbus ohio\u201d in the search history. \u201cIn Ohio do clergy have to report child abuse confessions,\u201d was also searched from the phone.<\/p>\n

The indictment was filed by U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in the Southern District of Ohio<\/a>. Christofferson will reportedly be extradited from Utah to Ohio.<\/p>\n

Records indicate Wade S. Christofferson has no prior arrests or charges. As of Tuesday, Nov. 25, Christofferson is still present on Salt Lake County\u2019s inmate roster.<\/p>\n

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints declined to comment on the arrest.<\/p>\n

\t \t \t \t=htmlentities(get_the_title())?>%0D%0A%0D%0A=get_permalink()?>%0D%0A%0D%0A=htmlentities(‘For more stories like this one, be sure to visit https:\/\/www.eastidahonews.com\/ for all of the latest news, community events and more.’)?>&subject=Check%20out%20this%20story%20from%20EastIdahoNews” class=”fa-stack jDialog”> \t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) \u2014 The brother of Latter-day Saint apostle, President D. Todd Christofferson, has been charged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-313872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}