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Investigators found the young girl who was seen being sexually assaulted in a homemade videotape, the Nye County Sheriff's Office said Friday. The seven-year-old is now safe with family members and sheriff's officials in Las Vegas, CNN reported.
"We have found the child, Madison," Sheriff Tony DeMeo said. "She's safe. The detectives say she is in good condition."
Since the videotape was found, police detectives made enormous efforts to find girl and they also managed to identify and locate the older girl that also appears on tape in images that were probably recorded without her knowledge. The 11-year-old girl was recorded through a window of a Pahrump home.
"She looks like a very happy 7-year-old girl," Nye County sheriff's Detective David Boruchowitz said at a news conference late Friday. She was 3 years at the time the tape was recorded.
The videotape was received by Nye County detectives from a man, Darren Tuck, who allegedly found it in the Nevada desert. He said he had found it four days ago, but police became suspicious.
Tuck has been charged with possession of child pornography and of exhibiting it. The 26-year-old Pahrump man denied the charges. Police are looking for Tuck, who will be incarcerated on a probation violation. The possessing of child pornography could land Tuck in prison for the rest of his life.
Specialists estimated the videotape was made four years ago.
Police detectives are also trying to locate the man who appears in the videotape. The molester was identified as Chester Arthur Stiles of Pahrump, Nev. Detective David Boruchowitz believes he have known friends of friends of the little girl's family and Sheriff DeMeo said that Stiles, who was also being sought on sexual assault charges, bears the resemblance to a man seen on the videotape.
The 37-year-old Stiles is also wanted as he was charged with lewdness with a minor younger than 14 and a federal charge of being a fugitive.
The girl’s mother found out what had happened to her daughter four years ago as someone called her.
"Somebody contacted her and said, 'Hey your daughter's on TV,'" Boruchowitz said. "She recognized her daughter."
"The mother was not aware of anything that went on with this young girl," DeMeo said.
Authorities released to the media the first name of the seven-year-old girl along with photos, a piece of information they normally wouldn’t release in such cases. They did it hoping they would get some tips from the public because, as DeMeo said, they had “nothing else”.
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