Suspect Michael Buckley Allegedly Met 11-Year-Old Girl Online, Was Tracked After Amber Alert Through Cellphone
(CBS4) - Investigators arrested Michael Buckley, 30, in connection with the case of an 11-year-old girl who was the focus of a community-wide search out of Westminster earlier in the week that triggered an Amber Alert. According to his arrest warrant, Buckley was tracked back to his home in Littleton and will be charged with sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.
"I noticed a whole load of police outside of our house," one neighbor said.
According to the court documents, the young girl was found with him the day after she was reported missing by her family.
"It's extremely alarming," the neighbor said.
According to the arrest affidavit, a witness who saw the missing person's reports told police he believed the young girl had asked to use his cellphone to call her boyfriend who was picking her up.
Suspicious of the circumstances, the witness took photos of the car and driver, who police later identified as Buckley. The document goes on to say the two met on Craigslist where Buckley was reportedly selling rats.
Investigator Paula Spokas works with the Child Sex Offender Internet Investigations Unit in Jefferson County, also known as CHEEZO. Their goal is to protect children from these types of encounters.
"There are times when we go online and we portray ourselves to be teenagers or underage kids to see what kind of adults are using social media, we may talk to up to 40 people a day," he said.
Spokas says with new sites popping up every day, their best advice for parents is to always communicate with their children.
"It's about constantly keeping up with what your kids are doing, asking questions, monitoring their phones... they have access to the entire global internet in their hands."
They also recommend parents set a technology curfew where kids have to turn in their devices at night, and they say a good rule for your kids to follow is that the people you are connecting with online are the same people you connect with face to face.
For more information, you can visit their website jeffco.us/883/Cheezo.