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SALT LAKE CITY — A Pennsylvania firefighter was extradited to Utah and appeared in court on Monday. The firefighter is accused of preying on two girls in Utah through social media.
The North Park Police Department's case against 31-year-old Daniel Roy Kromer Jr. includes several allegations about his contact with two 11-year-old girls from North Logan.
The Cache County Attorney's Office filed eight counts against him: two counts of aggravated sexual extortion of a child, two counts of enticing a minor and four counts of dealing in harmful material to a minor by an adult.
North Park Police Chief Kent W. Goodrich said the parents of one of the victims contacted detectives immediately after finding disturbing messages on their daughter's phone in July 2023.
According to court documents, Kromer contacted the girls on an app called IMVU, "posing as a female" named "Ashley Ortiz."
"(Our daughter) didn't really have any business being on it, but she was on it … because she saw you can create an avatar," Alyssa Williams said. "I (initially) didn't really see any harm done because I thought it was just about creating an avatar and I didn't really know too much about it."
She soon noticed a change in her daughter's behavior and phone use.
"She just kept looking on her phone," Alyssa Williams said. "And she started acting really weird about (letting me see it). So I (knew) something was off. I started looking (through the phone) and there was this man who got in contact with her through the app and just started texting her."
Kromer, under the name "Ashley," told the girls that a man named Daniel was "touching her and putting his hand down her pants." He then asked them to "call Daniel and tell him to stop," the court documents state. When the child victims allegedly contacted "Daniel," court documents indicate he told them he would stop "if they would send him nude photos of themselves."
The affidavit states the girls allegedly sent Kromer clothed pictures of themselves which he put on his wall on the IMVU app and threatened to only take them down "if they sent him the types of pictures that he wanted."
"Thank goodness that the victims in this case had a good enough relationship with their parents that they could go to them and talk to them," Goodrich said. "It was reported to us as a sextortion case."
Investigators identified a username and several phone numbers associated with the IMVU account and tracked them to a "general area" where they thought he might be located. "The big break in the case came out a few months ago when the suspect reached out through a text message and said, 'I'd like nudes. You can trust me. I'm a firefighter, here's my fireman's hat.'" Goodrich said.
They traced the phone number and information on the fireman's hat to the Fountain Hill Fire Department and, eventually, to Kromer in Pennsylvania.
"He was working as a firefighter, I believe, which is scary because public servants ... we're supposed to protect people. Not be engaged in something as atrocious," Goodrich said.
A search warrant was served at Kromer's home and, according to the court documents filed in Utah,
"Located on several of the devices (at the home) were images of what appeared to be child pornography along with several message threads from different messaging services that indicate Daniel had been requesting child pornography from individuals, some of which appeared to be juveniles themselves," police wrote in an affidavit.
Court documents also allege Kromer sent a WhatsApp message to a "parent who was offering their toddler to Daniel to have sex with for a couple hundred dollars."
Agents with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office also located police reports alleging Kromer had "taken his female cousin to the woods" and was found "straddling her" with the victim screaming.
Another allegation indicated Kromer used a vacant burn house "used for training by a local fire department" which he would advertise to women for rent. "The women would ask to see photos of the property and he would tell them to meet at the property so they could see it. Daniel also used this same property on a babysitting app offering babysitting services," according to the arrest warrant.
Kromer is expected back in court on March 25. Goodrich said Kromer will be prosecuted in Utah before returning to Pennsylvania to face more potential charges there.
Awareness, resources for parents
"I'll put this stat out there, and it's a scary stat," said Michelle Busch-Upwall, an Internet Crimes Against Children training coordinator. "One in five kids is solicited online." She said parents need to know what red flags to look for because online predators are more prevalent and more dangerous now than ever.
"So as things get scarier and more intense, those numbers are gonna go up," Busch-Upwall said.
"This type of creature was in contact with not just my daughter but several other children," Alyssa Williams said. "When I read the report, it brought me to tears."
"We're told that this is just a slight preview of what they found," Sheldon Williams said.
"He was on the other side of the country, but … if he would have been local, or was really, really desperate, he would've come here," the mother said.
The parents hope their experience can raise awareness for other parents about the dangers children face on social media apps.
"Stop worrying about being your kids' friends and giving them their 'privacy.' Check their phones, check who they're talking to because this guy was across the country when talking to my daughter. There's ones out there that will go as far as they can to get to their victims," the mother said. "Don't let your kids be their victim."
"A lot of times, with grooming, you'll see a change in personality. You'll see kids pulling away from their family and friends," Busch-Upwall said. "When they're pulling away from everyone, that's when we need to open our eyes."
Busch-Upwall said talking to kids about online predators needs to be an ongoing, age-appropriate conversation that starts as soon as they're using the internet and social media.
"Open lines of communication with these kids is really, really important," she said.
Resources
If you, your child, or anyone you know might be facing an internet crime against a child, please report and seek out resources for help:
- Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force tip line: 801-281-1211
- S.M.A.R.T parenting tips for online safety.
- FBI's website with information on sextortion for parents and teenagers.
- Common Sense Media provides parents with information on how various social media platforms work.
- Take it Down is a free service to help remove sexually explicit images or videos of children under 18 years old.
- THORN.ORG "An innovative technology nonprofit dedicated to creating products and programs that combat child sexual abuse at scale."
