St. Charles Sex Offender Admits Possessing Child Pornography

ST. LOUIS – A registered sex offender from St. Charles, Missouri on Thursday admitted possessing child pornography and contacting a child via Snapchat.

Ronald L. Thurber, 73, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to possession of child pornography as a prior offender. He admitted searching for child sexual abuse material online and possessing that material in a Google account. He also had hundreds of pictures and videos on his laptop computer and cell phone. Investigators have identified the child victims in 190 of those files.

Thurber also admitted masturbating while corresponding with a 10-year-old in Washington state via Snapchat. 

Thurber was required to register as a sex offender after being convicted in a 1979 rape and sodomy case in St. Louis County Circuit Court. He was sentenced to eight years in prison. 

The investigation began after the material in his Google account triggered multiple tips to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Thurber is scheduled to be sentenced April 3. The charge is punishable by between 10 and 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both prison and a fine. 

The FBI and the St. Charles County Cyber Crime Task Force investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For information about keeping kids safe online, please visit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s NetSmartz program.