MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, Colo. — A man has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography after investigators found an organized collection of more than 10,500 child porn images and videos in his home, the District Attorney for the 17th Judicial District said Thursday.
Colorado’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force began investigating Jason Van Hoesen, 46, in December 2018.
A search engine detected that Van Hoesen had uploaded an image that was suspected to be child pornography and reported that image to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the release says.
Using the IP address of the computer that had uploaded, an image of a naked boy, the DA said ICAC was able to track it to the Mountain Village home where Van Hoesen lived with a roommate. Mountain Village is a small town near Telluride, Colorado.
The agency obtained a search warrant and found several digital storage devices belonging to Van Hoesen, according to the DA.
Those devices contained more than 10,500 child porn files that the DA said were organized into folders, including some that contained images of infants and toddlers.
Investigators did not find any child porn images on devices belonging to Van Hoesen's roommate, the DA said.
As part of his plea agreement, entered on Monday, Van Hoesen will have to pay restitution to 20 minor victims who were identified in the images and have requested payment.
Van Hoesen will be sentenced on Oct. 5.
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