COLORADO SPRINGS – Arrest documents obtained by News 5 detail shocking and repulsive information that led to the arrest of a Colorado Springs firefighter Wednesday afternoon.
Police arrested 59-year-old Robert Patrick Stambaugh without incident Wednesday for sexual exploitation of a child Wednesday. Stambaugh is being held in the El Paso County jail without bond.
An affidavit of probable cause obtained by News 5 shows that Colorado Springs Police were tipped off about sexual exploitation of children and possible “ongoing physical assaults of children” in El Paso County from Homeland Security. That agency said they received the tip from a police officer in Boone, N.C., which detailed online activity in the Kik “Fun Times” private message group.
Springs Police reached out to the officer in North Carolina who discovered the group message on Wednesday morning. That officer said he joined multiple Kik groups and was invited into the “Fun Times” group on Sept. 24, 2018. From that time, he screenshotted multiple messages from members of the group that depicted graphic sexual content involving children.
The content detailed in the arrest documents is very disturbing and graphic. The message group discussed sexual acts on children as young as 2 years old and included videos and pictures showing sexual acts involving children.
None of the message senders were identified and it was impossible to determine which messages might have been sent by Stambaugh.
The officer in North Carolina contacted Kik and obtained emails and IP addresses from users involved in the group chat. One of those IP addresses was assigned to Stambaugh at his Colorado Springs address, located near the intersection of Powers Boulevard and Mesa Ridge Parkway northeast of Fountain.
Police confirmed that the address provided by the police officer in North Carolina matched Stambaugh’s address on his driver’s license. CSPD then requested a search warrant of Stambaugh’s home a little after 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Police then went to Stambaugh’s home a little before 3 p.m. Once there, the officer on the case conducted an audio interview with Stambaugh and the Homeland Security agent who originally reached out to CSPD. Police said Stambaugh told officers he engaged in “fantasy” talk online with others. According to police, Stambaugh said this included uploading and downloading images of underage children engaged in sexual acts.
Police said Stambaugh told them the same usernames, passwords and account information Kik had already shared with CSPD. Officers also seized a tablet found in Stambaugh’s garage that had two videos of underage girls “engaged with sexual intercourse with unknown adult males.”
Stambaugh was charged with sexual exploitation of a child (Class three felony) and possessing video showing the sexual exploitation of a child (Class 4 felony)
WARNING: The affidavit contains extremely graphic content that is very disturbing and contains portions of explicit online messages as part of the investigation.
