In 2012, an individual using the screenname Avalanche/TheRealAvalanche introduced himself to the dark web community of child sexual abuse sites. From 2012 to 2023 this individual alluded law enforcement worldwide and evolved from a lurker, to trader, to producer of hidden cam vids and up until 2 days prior to his arrest the rapist of his own 2- and 5-year-old daughters.

This case study will highlight the efforts and coordination from Australia to Virgina to Florida and to Maine as a dedicated group of talented investigators (agents, computer forensics officers and forensic interviewers) worked together to identify, interview and arrest of Justin Culmo after a decade of involvement in the sexual abuse of children. To date 13 victims of sexual abuse have been identified through the investigation and an additional 31 children are suspected to have been sexually abused by Culmo, to include approximately 12 from his own daughter’s gymnastics studio. Law enforcement officials also seized approximately 100 TB of devices that remain encrypted.

In addition to all the known sexual abuse images/videos, Culmo admitted to using AI (stable diffusion) to create his own new images of child sexual abuse images based on innocent victims who walked through Disney World unaware of the monster in their midst.

Throughout the investigation HSI Agents have observed the evolution of an offender from the early days of the dark web in 2012 up to the use of AI to create nearly 3500 images of child sexual abuse material using photos and videos the offender captured with his own go-pro.