An executed search warrant at a Vancouver hotel room unveiled several disturbing items belonging to A Florida Man: 39-year-old Samuel Aaron Leonard. Authorities recovered what appears to be a kidnapper’s Kit, which included handcuffs, duct tape, rubber gloves, heavy-duty flex cuffs, blindfolds, a sex toy, lubricant, a hatchet, several large knives, ammunition, and a 45 caliber handgun.
The New Port Richey resident was arrested in Vancouver on July 2, just outside the home of a 14-year-old girl he had spent months enticing online for sexual abuse. Leonard communicated with the teen on various social media platforms posing as a 20-year old. According to the crime complaint, Leonard first established contact with the girl through social media around April 1. The accused spent the next few months communicating with the girl through multiple social media sites and even sent her a cell phone so that they could secretly communicate.
Unknown to the girl, Leonard installed tracking and surveillance software on the phone to monitor her location and read her texts and emails. Leonard soon turned the conversations with the girl into that of sexual nature and even convinced her to share with him various sexually explicit pictures. The girl’s guardians contacted Kalama Police upon discovery of the communication in late June.
Authorities immediately seized both phones the girl had been using, and an undercover officer took over the communication assuming the girl’s identity online. Investigations revealed that Leonard had traveled via bus from Florida to the Vancouver area and was within a short bike ride from the girl’s home.
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The undercover officer posing as the girl revealed to Leonard that the girl’s parents had confiscated the phone sent to her. Leonard said he would give her a new one. Police surveilled Leonard as he took the newly purchased phone, packaged it, and tossed it over the fence to the girl’s backyard. Shortly after that, Leonard was arrested.
Leonard was detained at the Clark County Jail for first-degree possession, first-degree dealing of sexual exploitation of a minor, and suspicious communication with a minor for immoral purposes.