JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Operating in secrecy from an apartment above his parent's garage at their house in Julington Creek, Lucas Michael Chansler, 31, became one of the most prolific sextortionists in U.S. history. Using a mixture of deception and intimidation, he extorted sexually explicit and pornographic images of some 350 child victims in 3 countries.
"His victims were all young girls," says FBI Special Agent Larry Meyer. "His youngest was 12 oldest was 16."
Lucas Chansler, 31, of St. Johns County, was arrested on January 8, 2010 when federal authorities raided his home.
He is now serving 105 years in federal prison on nine charges of child pornography for his involvement in obtaining over 80,000 images and videos of child pornography from over 350 underage girls, the FBI Jacksonville office released Tuesday.
The FBI says they first received a tip back in December of 2009 from a mother of a 15-year-old girl in Phoenix, Ariz. who had met a 15-year-old boy on MySpace - or so she thought.
This alleged boy solicited a topless photo from this woman's daughter and, after receiving it, asked for more. The young girl from Phoenix refused, but when she did, the 'boy' threatened to post the photos on the internet and send them to her friends and family.
She then unwillingly complied to his requests for more sexually explicit images and videos, according to authorities. At the time, she believed he was just a 15-year-old boy.
This was the first thread that eventually led to Chansler's arrest. For three months, an investigation by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) traced the IP address of the extortionist and discovered that he lived in the Jacksonville area.
In January of 2010, FBI Jacksonville agents and other partner agencies raided the home connected to the IP address and learned that he was responsible for extorting the young girl from Phoenix and posting those images on the internet.
Through an interview with Chansler, authorities were told that he had done this to 25 other young girls and that he was in the process of doing it to 25 more. All of the girls were aged 12 to 16. He told FBI officials that he chose younger girls because adult women were 'too smart' to fall for his scheme.
After examining Chansler's computer, authorities found hundreds upon hundreds of images and videos - totally about 80,000 in all - of child pornography.
On his computer, the FBI found a file named 'Done' and another named 'Prospects.' The files of over 350 underage girls whom he had sexually explicit images or videos of were found.
According to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Chansler would gain his victims' trust and ask them to web or video chat. He would show his victims a video of a young boy masturbating and attempt to get the girls to do things on camera. If he succeeded, he would then record whatever they did.
Chansler also saved screengrabs of the girls' MySpace and Stickam pages, friends lists and photos in subfolders he'd created for each of his victims.
FBI officials also found 8 different profiles of fake 15-year-old boys he used to conceal his true identity to his victims. They also found dozens of email, Stickam, and instant messenger user accounts he used.
One of his victims, Samantha Chonski, now 21, said she was just 13 when she was approached by who she knows now was Chansler.
"He wanted me to take off my clothes and do things a 13-year-old doesn't even know existed," Chonski said. "One night I was on Stickam by myself just talking to people and I got a random message from some random name."
Eight years have passed since Chonski was contacted out of the blue by a stranger while she was chatting on the now defunct social networking site Stickam. That stranger quickly went from chatting with her to threatening her.
"He already knew who I was. I was astonished. He already had by MySpace page pulled up and showed me that he knew me and a lot about me and he knew my family and my friends," Chonski said.
"I was scared to death," she continued. "I didn't know if he was going to come to Pennsylvania and come find me or if he was going to try to ruin my life."
The FBI said that Chansler did not extort photos and videos for money, but for the power it afforded him over teenage girls.
"He was making me do things and I guess he was recording or taking pictures of me while I was doing it," Chonski said. "And he kept making me do different things all while I was crying on a webcam and I guess that was amusing to him."
Of the 109 victims the FBI identified, they said that at least five of them attempted suicide. Two of those girls attempted it twice.
"I became very depressed," Chonski said. "And afraid to even associate with males." She flew down to Jacksonville and testified at Chansler's sentencing hearing. She says she now has social anxiety.
"I'm afraid to walk down the street and say 'hi,'" Chonski said. "I was very suicidal."
Two families relocated their daughters because they were so afraid Chansler knew where they lived and would try to come abduct their daughters.
Chonski has a message to other victims of this crime:
"Please don't be afraid. There are people out there trying to help you," she said.
For months after Chansler's arrest an FBI case agent and an intelligence analyst in Jacksonville poured over the thousands of images and videos on his computer in attempts to identify his victims, officials said.
One victim was identified by a reflection in a photo of her with friends that contained the name of her school.
Another was identified by a radio station's poster hanging on her wall in one of the videos. A Google search of the call letters led the authorities to the city where she lived. A school resource officer helped them find the underage girl.
In the end, authorities were able to identify 109 of the victims and found that they were from 26 states, 3 Canadian provinces and the United Kingdom. Approximately 250 of Chansler's victims remain unknown.
Over 100 investigators were involved in attempts to locate the victims and help them receive any mental health services they might need.
On November 10, 2014, Chansler was sentenced to 105 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to nine counts of production of child pornography.
At least 49 of Chansler's victims' photos and videos are still being circulated among pedophiles today, according to the FBI.
If you have information that may help identify victims of Lucas Chansler or believe you may have been victimized by him you can complete a confidential questionnaire at www.fbi.gov/sextortion or email FBIVictimAssistance@IC.FBI.GOV. You can also call the FBI Jacksonville Field Office at 904-248-7000.
The FBI has released a video explaining the crime of 'sextortion.' Watch it below:
If you do not want to watch a video, you can read the NCMEC's 'sextortion' Fact Sheet provided by the FBI:
