TBI special agents with the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) squad and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, acting on a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), investigated a Benton man, resulting in his indictment and arrest.
In April 2023, agents received a cyber tip from NCMEC that dozens of files believed to be child sexual abuse material had been uploaded into a digital storage cloud over the course of several months. As a result of that investigation, the owner of the account was identified as Rory Cullen Frerichs, 22, of Polk County. Further investigation identified additional files of child sexual abuse material.
On Nov. 18, the Polk County Grand Jury returned indictments charging Frerichs, with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor (over 50 images) and one count of sexual exploitation of a minor (over 100 images). On Friday, he was arrested by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and booked into the Polk County Jail on a $100,000 bond.