Federal agents have charged a man who says he’s a South Texas College professor with sexually abusing a four-year-old girl and filming the alleged attacks.
The Homeland Security Investigations led Rio Grande Valley Child Exploitation Investigation Task Force arrested Reid Etheridge on Oct. 2 and charged him with sexual exploitation.
Approximately a week later, federal agents arrested Alicia Cronkhite and charged her with sexual exploitation and distribution of child pornography.
The investigation revealed that Cronkhite sexually abused a 6-year-old girl while filming and taking pictures of the abuse, which she sent to Etheridge, who uploaded the child pornography to the internet, according to authorities.
Etheridge is also accused of filming himself sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl.
Both complaints state that the investigation was referred to federal authorities here by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC.
“The referral was from Google involving a suspect producing and uploading multiple files of child exploitation material to a Google account linked to a subscriber with email addresses (redacted) and (redacted),” the complaint against Etheridge states.
The NCMEC reported approximately 323 images and videos depicting young children in sexually explicit conduct.
“Upon review, it was determined that multiple files were unknown files of child exploitation material and appear to have been created by the individual that uploaded them to Google,” according to the complaint against Etheridge.
Agents linked the material to Etheridge’s McAllen residence after obtaining information about the IP address linked to the online accounts, authorities say.
On Oct. 2, federal agents executed an address there where they say they encountered Etheridge, who agreed to go to HSI McAllen for an interview, at his front door.
Etheridge confirmed he was the owner of the email addresses in the NCMEC report and said he was a professor of South Texas College. STC’s website indicates Etheridge was a math instructor.
“Subsequently, Etheridge admitted to sexually assaulting a minor female child, whom he described as a four year old female on at least six occasions, beginning in approximately March of 2020. Etheridge also admitted to filming the sexual assault of the child he identified as a four old female,” the criminal complaint against the man states.
HSI says the man also admitted to downloading and saving multiple files of child pornography to his Google account, including videos he produced.
Authorities say Etheridge admitted to using his cellphone to record the abuse.
“HIS (special agents) found videos and images depicting young children engaged in sexually explicit conduct constituting child pornography on Etheridge’s cellular telephone, and Etheridge confirmed he produced some of those videos and images,” the complaint states.
The man also confirmed he was the person depicted in the videos contained in the NCMEC referral depicting him sexually abusing a 4-year-old girl, according to the charging document.
After Etheridge’s arrest, federal agents discovered text messages between him and a contact identified as “Who?”
Federal authorities allege “Who?” is Cronkhite, who they arrested Thursday.
Those texts, which are partially included in the report, are indicative of the production of child pornography, authorities say.
The texts are disturbing and too graphic to publish.
HSI alleges Cronkhite sent Etheridge child pornography of a 6-year-old. Those texts also indicate the 6-year-old was physically present with Cronkhite during the sexual abuse, according to the complaint.
Cronkhite admitted to producing at least 10 child exploitation images of minor female victim No. 1 and distributing them to Etheridge on multiple occasions between the approximate timeframe of January to September of 2020,” the complaint states.
Both Cronkhite and Etheridge are being temporarily held without bond pending detention and probable cause hearings scheduled for next week, records show.
