Press Release

On August 29^th, 2013, Detectives from the Stone County Sheriff’s Office, working with the Tri-Lakes Internet Crimes Task Force, executed a search warrant at 3478 Talking Rocks Road, Branson West, Missouri, in reference to Child Pornography.  During the execution of the warrant, Detectives seized computers and flash drives from the residence to be examined forensically.  Based on the information already received and the items found, Richard Blackwell was taken into custody and transported to the Stone County Jail and placed on a 24 hour investigative hold.

On August 30^th, 2013, Detectives located several images of Child Sexual Abuse Images on items seized from the residence under the warrant.  The Stone County Prosecutor filed the following charge on August 30^th:

Richard Dean Blackwell, a 52 yr old white male, was charged with Possession of Child Pornography, a Class C Felony, RSMO 573.037, with a Bond set at $25,000.00 Cash or Surety.

The investigation started in August of 2012 when a Detective from Nixa, a Detective assigned to the Tri-Lakes Cyber Crime Task Force, received images on a program used to locate Child Sexual Abuse Images on the Internet.  From that time, the investigation went to Stone County, then Branson Police Department, and then back to Stone County.  In August on 2013 Detective’s received another download which checked back to the above address on Talking Rocks Road. These images then lead to the issuance of a search warrant for the residence.  When the search warrant was issued, Richard Blackwell was at the residence.  Mr. Blackwell had been a person of interest in the case during the investigations in all the agencies involved.

Richard Blackwell is currently still incarcerated at the Stone County Jail.

 

Sheriff Doug Rader

Stone County Missouri