The Livestream Epidemic | An Inside Look With The Child Rescue Coalition

Most of us know the internet has a dark side, but very few people understand just how widespread it really is or how close to the surface it operates. In this episode, we go behind the scenes with the Child Rescue Coalition, the organization using advanced technology to track down predators in real time, and then dive into a disturbing case involving Michael Baxter, a man who spent years participating in online exploitation before investigators finally caught up to him. Join Annie as she breaks down how cases like his are uncovered and what was happening behind the scenes.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:21Annie Elise?

  Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Seriallessly.

• 1:45Annie Elise?

  Hello and welcome back to an all new episode of Seriallessly with me, Annie Elise. Now, if you listened to headline highlights yesterday, you know that I mentioned a very specific episode that I had released a couple of months ago only on YouTube. One that deals with a really horrific case in the Philippines. I partnered with CRC on this case and we talked a little bit about it yesterday. But I had mentioned that I was going to bring it over onto this feed. So all of my audio listeners can have the opportunity to listen to it since it was a YouTube only episode. So I have that episode for you now. I'm going to jump right into it for you and really curious to hear your thoughts. But again, I want to give you a big warning and I cannot stress this enough.

• 2:31Annie Elise?

  It is very, very graphic and unfortunately very disturbing to hear because it deals with so much C-SAM material, families exploiting their own children. And it's just, you know, knowledge is power. I do believe that truly, and I think everybody should know these statistics. But it is not an easy episode to hear. So with that, let's get into it. The internet pretty much gives us access to everything, right? Recipes, social media, step by step tutorials of how to fix things, how to remove wallpaper, how to paint, I mean, anything you need, whatever you need, it's usually just boop boop, a few taps away. And I think most of us agree or would agree that we think of this tool and our phone

• 3:14Annie Elise?

  and the internet as something that makes life easier, makes it more convenient, faster, more connected with social media. But here's the part that is harder to sit with and the reality of it. For every positive thing that the internet makes possible, there's also a darker side operating right alongside it. Things that most people would never even think about, or honestly, would probably wish that they never even knew existed. And that's actually why today's video is going to look a little bit different than what we usually cover here. Not what we usually cover, but how we cover it. Because today, in addition to talking about the case, we're also going to be talking about the Child Rescue Coalition, also known as CRC.

• 3:59Annie Elise?

  Now you may have heard me mention CRC before. They are an organization that I feel so incredibly passionate about their work, their efforts, their activism, how many children they have saved. It is so unbelievable. And I have officially partnered with them to where a portion of all of our proceeds go directly to CRC. That is how much I believe in their work. And today, what I want to do is not only share a case with you, but I want to talk about the work that CRC has been doing behind the scenes with this case particularly. The technology that they've developed, technology that is actively helping rescue children. And with that ties into today's case that we'll be talking about, a recent terrifying case that they have firsthand been involved with.

• 4:41Annie Elise?

  Now, when I first started learning more about their work and everything that they do, I realized pretty quickly that this is the kind of thing that people need to understand. Because once you see the scale of what's happening, it's really difficult to ignore. And I think once you see the resources and what CRC brings to the table to combat issues like this, you are going to feel just as passionately about them as I do. And hopefully it helps you feel a little bit at ease too, knowing just by watching this video, I'm not asking you to donate to them, you can of course do that on your own, but I do hope that you feel good about watching this video in its entirety. Because by watching any video on this channel, you are indirectly, or I guess directly, supporting their mission.

• 5:23Annie Elise?

  And so I think that that is something incredible to not only know what they're doing, have more understanding of what they're doing, but also be a part of it, be a part of the change and helping them help children. So I'm going to stop talking, we are going to jump right into it. As you know, I am Annie Elise. Hit that subscribe button, hit that like button, and let's jump right in. Now, for the purpose of today's episode, we are going to be focusing on a case that is specifically tied to the Philippines. But I want to be very clear about something right up front. This is not a problem that exists in just one place. Unfortunately, this happens everywhere, every country, every county, every corner of the world, every single day. No place is immune to it.

• 6:08Annie Elise?

  That being said, the Philippines is currently the number one producer of online child exploitation materials. And with technology steadily becoming more available, the stats of children being abused online are skyrocketing. And just to give you a clearer idea of what the scale of this actually looks like, every single month, Filipino law enforcement receives a wave of tips about potential online child sexual exploitation cases. And we're not talking about a small number here, although any number is obviously too large, but it's around 3,000 tips every single month. 3,000 every single month. And when I first heard that number, I had to just take a beat and pause for a second because think about that.

• 6:53Annie Elise?

  If that's the number of cases that are actually being reported or flagged every month, imagine how many are never reported at all. And this is just the Philippines, this isn't the whole world. Imagine how many cases and how many instances of this go completely unnoticed or worse are being intentionally hidden. And that's something that we're going to get into a little bit more here shortly. So just hang on. Now, with all of this, it also raises a really big question. If we know that this is happening, what can actually be done about it? What can we do about it? Because I think for a lot of people, when you hear statistics like this, it's overwhelming, right? I mean, it feels huge, it feels global, it is. And honestly, it can make you feel kind of helpless.

• 7:39Annie Elise?

  Like, how could any one person possibly make a difference when the problem feels this enormous and how do we even get our arms around it? Well, luckily, that is where Child Rescue Coalition comes in. And for today's episode, my team and I had the chance to sit down and speak with Greg, the CEO of CRC. And one thing that really stood out to me right away is how their organization doesn't look at cases like this and just kind of throw their hands up in the air and say, oh, well, there's nothing we can do about it. Instead, they do the complete opposite. They have spent years developing technology that helps track down offenders online. And more importantly, they are using that technology and they are working directly

• 8:20Annie Elise?

  with law enforcement to identify these predators and then help them rescue the children involved. There are real cases, real investigations, and real success stories where they have been able to step in and stop ongoing exploitation. Now, I know at first this might sound, you know, a little confusing. Who CRC is, how they operate, what their technology actually does. And honestly, that's exactly why we wanted to include Greg and a few other members of the CRC team in today's episode. Because they can better explain the work that they do, far more than I ever could. So rather than me trying to summarize all of it, I'm gonna let Greg walk you through some of it himself.

• 8:57Speaker 04

  My name is Greg Schiller. I'm the CEO of Child Rescue Coalition. We are a nonprofit organization based in Florida, whose sole mission is to build technology for law enforcement. So they can use that tech to find online predators of children and protect our children from child sexual abuse. At Child Rescue Coalition, we build technology that sources publicly available information, puts it into a dashboard and allows law enforcement to search it. So they can find offenders where the police officers actually are themselves. So this helps law enforcement streamline their investigations, not looking online, trying to find offenders who are trying to exploit our children wherever they are, but where the officers are. And so after receiving training on our technology,

• 9:40Speaker 04

  they will find individuals in our program that are trading child sexual abuse material around the world in nearly every country that it's happening in.

• 9:51Annie Elise?

  So as I said, when I first started learning about this technology, I have to admit, I was pretty amazed by it. But at the same time, I also had a lot of questions. And honestly, I think that most people would. Because when you hear that there's technology that is capable of tracking down offenders like this, your mind immediately goes to the back end of things, like, well, how does that actually work? If it works so well, why haven't more offenders been caught? Why is this still such a huge epidemic? What starts an investigation in the first place? Is this something where law enforcement reaches out to the CRC and says, hey, now we need your help because we already found this. Can we use your technology to look into this? Or, you know, could it be the other way around where CRC flags it on their end? And then they reach out to local law enforcement of that area saying, hey, we found this, this, and this. You need to go make an arrest.

• 10:35Annie Elise?

  I mean, there is a lot that goes into it. And one of my biggest questions was, is the technology actually identifying things that law enforcement doesn't even know about yet? I mean, those are the kinds of questions that kept coming up for me and what I kept coming back to. And that's exactly why I wanted to sit down with Greg and really understand how all of this works behind the scenes and how it affects today's case.

• 10:59Speaker 04

  So when law enforcement goes into our dashboard, which they have access to after training, they will see offenders that are actually in their areas of responsibility. So if you're a New York police officer, you're gonna see offenders that are in New York. And from there, you are shown information of what those offenders are actually sharing online. Information about the files, information about the offenders', potential location. And from there, you get a search warrant and a subpoena, and you can knock down the door within 48 hours, executing a search warrant lawfully signed by a judge, based on the lead data that we provide law enforcement. But secondarily, our technology is integrated into other platforms.

• 11:41Speaker 04

  So for example, if law enforcement receives a tip from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children, the National Center is cross-referencing the information in that tip against our technology and providing lead data about our technology in their tips as well. So law enforcement can access the data on their own, or through a tip, they might be shown, hey, go and access Child Rescue Coalition's technology because there's an offender doing something else besides what you already know.

• 12:09Annie Elise?

  So the technology itself is actually really complex. And honestly, having this conversation at all feels important, especially with how much of our lives now exist online and on social media. Because when you start learning about how some of these offenders operate, it forces you to look at the internet a little differently. Places that might seem completely harmless on the surface can sometimes be the exact places that predators are using to find and target children. Now, for our interview specifically, Greg wasn't able to share the exact apps or the specific online spaces where their technology is currently tracking these offenders. And I think that that makes sense for obvious reasons, right?

• 12:50Annie Elise?

  I mean, they don't want to tip off any potential predators who could potentially watch this of where they're looking and where their technology is running and scraping things behind the scenes. So I think we can all read between the lines a little bit here and assume that social media is probably a pretty significant portion of where this kind of activity happens. But it's definitely not limited to that. Like we talked about earlier, the internet gives people endless possibilities. And unfortunately, that includes people who are using it for really harmful purposes. It's very uncomfortable to think about, but it's part of a much bigger conversation that needs to happen.

• 13:29Speaker 04

  Our technology is finding offenders who are, again, this is really important. They're in publicly available spaces. And our technology is there. And it is essentially finding out what these offenders are sharing online. What kind of images, what kind of videos? If they're soliciting our children? And that technology then takes that information, which nobody would really look for, but it's available and there if you know how to look for it and read it, which we do. And then puts it into this dashboard that I keep referencing. And it's important because it allows law enforcement then very easily to source that information directly for where the law enforcement officer is,

• 14:12Speaker 04

  saving them really valuable time and valuable resources.

• 14:15Annie Elise?

  And honestly, if there is one thing that you take away from this video, let it be this. These offenders are everywhere. If we have the world at our fingertips, they do too.

• 14:26Speaker 04

  I'll say it this way. If there is a place an offender is, and there is a way to get access to that place lawfully, lawfully, then our technology has the capability of getting there in a publicly available space so that we can then provide that to law enforcement. Offenders are everywhere, right? They're in all different kinds of networks, all different kinds of chat applications, all different kinds of websites. And so what we've been able to do over the last, essentially 14 years, is to position our technology so it's looking at the places where the offenders are. Sometimes we get notified by law enforcement, hey, have you guys heard about this website or this app? No? Okay, very interesting.

• 15:11Speaker 04

  We'll try to build a solution for that so that we can source the data for law enforcement and streamline the process.

• 15:17Annie Elise?

  Now, something else that really stood out to me during this conversation with Greg was learning about some of the more non-traditional forms of abuse that CRC has been seeing uptick more and more. And one of those is something called live streaming abuse.

• 15:32Speaker 04

  So live streaming is where an individual will go on to any number of forums or websites, connect with somebody in another country who has at their physical disposal a child that they're willing to sexually abuse or offer to display in a lewd or lascivious manner and show it to the person who connected with them. That's usually done for a price. So this has become the latest of a modern, more modern type of human trafficking. And so by way of example, you might have an individual in the United States who meets somebody online who has a child available, that they tell the person in the United States, I will abuse this child for money. So they connect.

• 16:15Speaker 04

  The offender sends money to that person through any type of money lending system, whether it's digital or bank or store. And when that money's received, which can be almost instantaneous, then the trafficker in this other country will put the child online to be shown and raped and otherwise sexually abused for the pure enjoyment of this pedophile, usually in a first world country. So now, knowing where they are is important. Because most of the buyers are in first world countries, and most of the traffickers are in third world countries. And where we see this happening the most is in the Philippines. And you have hundreds of thousands of children there being exploited sexually.

• 17:00Speaker 04

  So that somebody that is their guardian or relative, even sibling or parent, is exploiting the child for financial gain. And that is live streaming sexual abuse.

• 17:12Annie Elise?

  Now, this next part is something that I think is really difficult to wrap your head around in general. But for me personally, especially as a parent, it hit even harder. Because in some of these cases, the children who are being exploited, it's happening at the hands of their own parents, their own families. And just saying that out loud feels almost impossible to process, right? The idea that a parent would participate in something like that, it's honestly unthinkable. But it happens. It is happening. And like I mentioned earlier, as we move forward with this case and the conversation with Greg, you're going to hear us reference the Philippines quite a bit. Because over time, it has unfortunately become something of an epicenter for this kind of abuse,

• 17:55Annie Elise?

  particularly when it comes to live streaming it as it's happening. And one of the first questions I had when learning about this was kind of simple, but I guess more complex when you break it down. But why? Why is this happening at such a large scale? But as terrible as the answer is, I think it's actually pretty straightforward and obvious. Money. Financial gain.

• 18:20Speaker 04

  The Philippines has, and currently is, the epicenter of it. But to be very clear, there are other countries where people are doing this from too. But the Philippines is interesting because there's a lot of English-speaking individuals there. There's a long time history and connection with America and Canada and the United Kingdom and Australia and a lot of first world English-speaking countries. They also have a pretty robust internet.

• 18:49Speaker 04

  Capability in that country as well. But I will say this. When the problem became identified, law enforcement in the Philippines, other non-governmental organizations, OSA Child Rescue Coalition went into swift action to try and defeat this. It is not something that's going to be stopped overnight, but it is something that can be defeated. Because unlike a lot of other crimes, if you can stop the demand for live streaming child sexual abuse, then the production shuts down. Because if money is not being sent, why would you produce it? The people doing this in the Philippines and other countries are not doing this for the purposes of sexual gratification of the child.

• 19:32Speaker 04

  They're doing it to make money, whether it's 25, 35, or 50 dollars. That could be a lot of money for someone in some of these countries. And so those are some of the reasons why it's happening, and there are many others. And as I said before, the government, law enforcement, they are aware of this problem and taking substantial steps to put a stop to it. I think sometimes, you know, different governments, different entities want to ignore the problem, and that is not happening in the Philippines. They are moving forward, changing laws, and really being aggressive about putting a stop to this.

• 20:07Annie Elise?

  And I think when most people hear the phrase "online child exploitation", their minds immediately go to the kinds of things that we've seen portrayed in movies or TV shows. The idea that offenders are going onto the dark web, they're digging through these hidden corners of the internet, they're finding other people who are willing to participate in the abuse or distribute illegal material, and it's kind of this untouched corner. But according to the CRC, that picture isn't really accurate. Because a lot of these offenders aren't operating on the dark web at all. They're on what the CRC refers to as the "clear web", meaning regular websites, forums, online spaces that you and I easily can access

• 20:52Annie Elise?

  and that children easily access. Places someone could literally just click right on over to after finishing this video.

• 20:58Speaker 04

  It's interesting, you know, sometimes offenders will go on certain apps, certain websites, trying to find where this is because they read about it, maybe they heard about it in a news story, and it's something that interests them. And so they'll try to find a forum, ask people, "Where can I find this? What website can I go to to find somebody?" Like anything else, if you really desire to find something, you'll be able to find it through the internet. You don't have to bury yourself deep into the dark web to find it. It's on the clear web. And then, once you find those websites, once you find those apps where those individuals are lurking with those children, then it's just a matter of making the connection.

• 21:39Annie Elise?

  And while some of these offenders, you know, might be abusing their own children or sometimes relatives, another thing that really stuck with me while researching this and while speaking with Greg, is just how many victims one single offender can have. In some cases, it can easily be over 100 children connected to one single offender. And I have to be honest, that number really stopped me in my tracks for a minute. Because I don't know what I had assumed before hearing that. Maybe I had some smaller number in my head, or maybe, I don't know if I'm being totally honest, I was just trying to soften the reality of it for my own peace of mind. I'm not sure. I know that there are serial predators, obviously. We have covered too many of those cases to count.

• 22:23Annie Elise?

  But when you think about people using the internet and how one single person could have hundreds to multiple hundreds, to thousands of victims, it just puts the scale in such perspective. It really does.

• 22:37Speaker 04

  Our technology is helping law enforcement target online offenders. Why do we do that? Why do we target online offenders? Because we know that online offenders have an exceptionally high rate of also being hands-on offenders. Now, look at it two ways. If you have an offender who's trading images of child sexual abuse of a child they've never physically come into contact with, well, that person has a high rate of being a hands-on offender with a child. Why? Because why are they looking at that material? Why are they sourcing for that material? Why are they trading that material if they don't have a sexual interest in molesting a child? Right? People who like baseball cards generally want to play baseball or have some interest in watching baseball or participating in baseball.

• 23:21Speaker 04

  And these guys are trading these images and videos as if they were trading cards, but they have a sexual interest in children, and the best studies in the world will say that the rate of that is exceptionally high. Secondarily, you have individuals who are chatting online, looking to meet children or talking to a child? Well, they are offending against that child. You see, our children really don't understand that what's happening online to them is happening in the real world, and it is the real world. And we have to come to a better grasp of that, that whatever's happening online is happening in the real world. So when our technology is helping law enforcement track and then arrest these predators, we are saving that child and every other child that offender would have come into contact with

• 24:05Speaker 04

  from being sexually abused.

• 24:07Annie Elise?

  Now, when it comes to how these offenders actually operate, every situation looks a little bit different. And it's kind of similar to the point we talked about earlier with the stereotypes that people get from movies about the dark web, right? Because just like how those portrayals aren't always accurate, the same goes for the environments that these offenders are operating out of. It may or may not look like what you would imagine off the top of your head.

• 24:32Speaker 04

  I can tell you the search warrants on scene are some of the most horrifying places you'll ever go. I've been on search warrants where FBI agents were wearing hazmat suits because the home was so grotesque that you couldn't walk in there without feeling like there was going to be some disease, some horrible agent there that was going to hurt you simply by being there because the house was just so rundown, and the offender hadn't left in months or years. Other time, it's somebody living in mom and dad's basement. And there's any number of scenarios that we've come across.

• 25:07Annie Elise?

  So now that you hopefully have a little bit better of an understanding of what CRC does and how their technology helps identify offenders, I want to walk you through a real case where this technology played a pivotal role in tracking down someone and ultimately stopping them. This case involves a man named Michael Anthony Baxter. During the early morning hours of December 19th, 2023, a federal warrant was signed to search the home of then-50-year-old Michael Baxter. Michael was living in Sterling, Virginia, about 40 minutes, give or take, from Washington DC. Now, the reason that the investigators wanted to search Michael's house? Well, it was because law enforcement had pretty good reason to believe

• 25:51Annie Elise?

  that Michael was involved in something dark, something sinister involving child CSAM material and online exploitation, just like the cases that Greg was talking about during our interview. Now, for part of this story, we didn't just speak with Greg. We also spoke with one of the special agents who actually worked on the Michael Baxter investigation. However, because of the nature of his job and for privacy reasons, we are going to refer to him simply as "Special Agent Mike". So as we move forward and start unpacking what happened with Michael, you will hear a few clips from our conversation with Special Agent Mike as well, where he explains how this case even first landed on their radar.

• 26:30Speaker 05

  The investigation into Michael Baxter started years, actually, before we knew about Mr. Baxter. One of those investigations was into what we refer to as the Kalarah Trasking Network, which is a Philippine-based child sex trafficking network. Through that investigation, different legal processes and different means and methods that HSI conducts those investigations, we obtained a litany of evidence. And that evidence both speaks to the offenses that the Kalarah network engaged in, but also their buyer network.

• 27:11Speaker 05

  And a lot of these child sex trafficking networks that especially are doing live stream shows, their buyer network is massive, sometimes in the hundreds, sometimes in the thousands of buyers globally. And in this case, when we reviewed...

• 27:28Speaker 05

  The Koloran Network buyer network. Uh, we identified some chat communication between the Koloran Network and Mr. Baxter.

• 27:38Annie Elise?

  When officers arrived at Michael's house, it was around six AM. Investigators forced entry, breaking down the front door and standing on the other side was Michael himself. Now, the court documents don't specify exactly what Michael was wearing or possibly not wearing, but they did note one detail that the investigators couldn't ignore. Whatever he had on, it was clear that he was visibly erect. Disgusting, I know. Now, after that initial entry, the officers quickly began searching Michael's home. And pretty quickly, one room in particular became the focus. And that was one of the upstairs bedrooms. Inside that room was a computer. And the computer wasn't just sitting there powered off or idle.

• 28:22Annie Elise?

  It was actually logged in, active, signed into an account where a live session was actively taking place. And it was the exact kind of session that Greg had described earlier in our interview. On the screen, investigators could see a string of messages between Michael and someone identified as a user one. The conversation had started around five forty-nine AM and it continued until six oh three AM, which is when law enforcement stepped in, broke down the door for entry and interrupted what had been happening. However, investigators couldn't see the entire conversation clearly because some of the messages were blocked because there was a pop-up window in the right-hand corner of the computer screen.

• 29:05Annie Elise?

  And because of that, it was covering portions of the chat. However, these messages read, "User one, I'm good." "Michael, how's the chicken pox?" "User one, it's okay now." "Michael, good." "User one, private now." "Michael, she pee in your mouth?" "Next message, not visible." "User one, how much tip?" "Next message from Michael, not visible." "User one, okay." "Michael, next message, not visible." "User one, private me now." Now, even without a few of those messages from Michael being visible, it's clear where this conversation was headed, or at least it's clear that this was headed somewhere dark.

• 29:48Annie Elise?

  However, Special Agent Mike gave us a better idea of what exactly these live streams, just like the ones Michael was a part of, were like.

• 29:56Speaker 05

  But it's important to note that these trafficking investigations aren't what people typically think, or these child sex shows. These aren't child sex shows where somebody or a group of people are maybe in a room, a hundred people in a room, watching a pre-recorded video or some pre-recorded, it seems, pre-recorded images. What this is in fact is one predator engaging, identifying and engaging with a trafficking network somewhere else in the world that has access to children. A negotiation occurring for the sexual abuse and rape of those children. Uh, sometimes up to and including the death of the child or extreme torture of the child.

• 30:40Speaker 05

  And then the show occurs one-on-one. And these, these offenders, these predators will

• 30:49Speaker 05

  they're essentially the director and sole viewer of a torture film. And that torture film will go on for as long as they deem it to go on. And, you know, whatever they want to happen to the child, uh, or the traffickers to do that child will happen to that child. Like I said, up to and including death and some really, really horrific, um, anus abuse.

• 31:10Annie Elise?

  Michael was an incredibly twisted man. And you all haven't even seen the half of some of the things that he said and forced these children to do. However, I want to make a special little disclaimer here. Special Agent Mike talks about how these live streams can be a variety of different things. Some sexual, some physical torture, and even in some cases, the death of these children. That being said, Michael's abuse during these live streams shows that it was consistently sexual. And I want to be very clear, it wasn't that Michael was just caught in the act this one time when the investigators busted down his door. This had been a years-long thing.

• 31:52Speaker 05

  And that chat communication occurred between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty, so three years of sustained communication with more than thirty, uh, child sex shows with children as young as two years old between Mr. Baxter and the Koloran Network.

• 32:07Annie Elise?

  So from two thousand seventeen to twenty twenty, Michael was in communications with a well-known sex exchanging and trafficking network. You see, Michael worked very closely with his co-conspirator, a woman named Raquel Tagle. Now, Raquel actually was caught back in twenty twenty-one. And it was after her arrest and the investigation into her exploitations that Michael started then getting brought into the mix. Raquel went by an online alias called Nene Fran. Now, her online exploitations were pretty twisted. Dealing and selling the bodies and innocence of her own four children, ages ranging from eight, nine, twelve, and fourteen.

• 32:52Annie Elise?

  And catching her really was all too easy. Raquel, or Nana, as her online account said, they fell for the NBI investigators pretending to be a potential client. They chatted back and forth before Raquel agreed on a finalized plan. Her daughter would do an online show for them for three thousand pesos. And as soon as that plan was finalized, the investigators immediately went to Raquel's house, arresting her and in turn, saving her four children. Now, as important as it is to get the offender arrested, it's even more important to, of course, rescue all of the children. Not even in Raquel's case specifically, but any of these kinds of cases because there are severe consequences if it's not done successfully on the first try.

• 33:37Speaker 05

  The, the risks, um, you know, that we face when we make these arrests, both domestically and internationally, are, are as you would expect, right? We're always at risk of violence when we encounter a subject. Um, but I think in these cases, the biggest risk is for the children. So if we don't, we collectively as law enforcement, global law enforcement, if we can't find all the children at the time of the, the arrest and rescue, um, or we don't do a, a, a very good job of working together as an international community to build a strong case against the trafficking network, then what can happen is these children don't get, they may get rescued temporarily. Uh, but if the case doesn't stand, then they're at risk of being re-trafficked,

• 34:23Speaker 05

  reintroduced into the, the trafficking network, uh, because a lot of times it's a guardian. Um, and, you know, sometimes these children disappear and we can't find them. And you can only imagine, obviously, what may have happened. They may have been sold to another trafficking network. They may just be hidden or they may be killed.

• 34:42Annie Elise?

  So Raquel's arrest was back in February of twenty twenty-one. After her arrest, she was then pretty open with the investigators about her involvement in the, all of the abuse over the years. She claimed that at first she started selling herself. Apparently she signed up for a dating app that was posted on a Facebook group and she would either sell videos or would do a live show video of herself. And that, that did work for a while, until she ran into somebody who didn't want her. They wanted children, any children, her children. As long as they were a child, that person was in. And they didn't just express this want or desire, they straight up asked Raquel if she could assist them with this.

• 35:27Annie Elise?

  And then, as she quotes this, not me, she took the plunge. Which, taking the plunge is how I would describe myself if I decided to go on like a big vacation or, you know, a journey that I wasn't familiar with, like a hike or something like that. Not selling my children online, I would never refer to as, so I took the plunge and I did it, like, are you out of your mind? Now, Raquel played the part of this remorseful mother, telling the media, "It hurts, I won't be able to see them anymore, I want to see them, I want to apologize, I'll pay for this." Now, and, I mean, was she actually sorry or was she just sorry that she got caught? I think that's the age-old question in these kinds of cases, isn't it? I would say she's sorry she got caught.

• 36:11Annie Elise?

  Now, Raquel faced multiple different charges and things from online sexual abuse to human trafficking to child abuse. And she was ultimately convicted and sentenced to ninety-one years in the Filipino prison system. And something that I found really interesting about Raquel and really the whole conversation surrounding the connection between a lot of Americans and these sex exchange agencies in different countries is the why behind it. Raquel kind of tried to defend herself a little bit, saying that she wasn't a bad person or a bad mom, but that she felt like she had to do it because they didn't have any money, she needed food for the kids, she had no shelter, things like that. She told the investigators all about how she was unemployed

• 36:55Annie Elise?

  and how her husband was a fisherman, but not bringing in enough money to support their family and that that's why she had to do this, which that excuse will never be enough for me, I don't care if I was living. And I, look, I get it's easy to judge, you know, what do they say, throw stones or glass houses or whatever the hell they say. But I can't imagine a world in which even if I was living on the streets with my kids, that I would think the next best option would be to sell them to try to put a roof over our head. Not in a million years, not in a million years. So this excuse, trying to justify it, to me, it just shows her real character, honestly. I think there are so many other lengths that you

• 37:39Annie Elise?

  can go to in order to provide for your children besides, literally, you could do anything other than this, honestly. But here's the issue. Raquel definitely is not the only person who has ever done something like this and who has done something that has been motivated by financial gain, which I have to say, three thousand pesos might sound like a good chunk of money, but in US dollars, it's next to nothing. And just so you don't have to Google it or ask Siri or calculate it on your own, it's about fifty-one dollars and seventy cents, which, okay, in today's day and age, not nothing, that is obviously something, especially with milk going up, gas

• 38:18Annie Elise?

  going up, all these things, but you're selling your child for fifty dollars. But really, it's pretty much a recipe, not only for a disaster, literally, but for success for these monstrous people, because you have these predators who are willing to spend literal pocket change to get what they want. But then you have people in places like the Philippines who will do the unthinkable for that kind of money, thinking that that kind of money will make a difference in their financial situation. And it's, it's just, I get that money is money and we live in a time where obviously it's very difficult to earn a living, but it's not an excuse, ever. It does, though, make sense how these things happen so easily, because people are greedy, people want money, people want the easy way out.

• 39:04Speaker 05

  The final piece of evidence that led us to the relationship between Baxter and Tagle, you know, it's really, it's not necessarily the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, or a final piece of evidence, rather, it's the gathering of the entire case. And, you know, when we work one of these cases, it's like climbing a mountain. You don't necessarily know where the top is, you just know that you want to get there. And you want to rescue these kids and put these, put these bad guys behind the horse so they could stop abusing even more children.

• 39:35Annie Elise?

  So in each of these live stream sessions, Michael and whoever he was speaking to, sometimes Raquel, sometimes other people, would chat back and forth, briefly discussing things like pay, or who Michael wanted to see, what kind of child he wanted, especially when it came to their age and gender. And then Michael would specify exactly what it was he wanted to see in the live stream. And I'm gonna go over some of these chats, but it definitely is a huge trigger warning, so let me just lay that out here, because these chats are more than disturbing. One of the chats from May 11th, 2017, really stood out to me as particularly disturbing,

• 40:17Annie Elise?

  too, because during these chats, Michael got onto a live show that featured a seven-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy. And what he requested, it makes me want to throw up, punch someone, do worse to somebody, and it's hard to even read these out loud. Michael sent multiple chats, or I should say, multiple directives, one after another. Lick it, spread it. She suck dick? Spread it open. She suck dick? And after giving the response of yes, Michael asks then in the chat, any there to suck? To which the co-conspirator responded, nothing, only the three-year-old. And

• 41:00Annie Elise?

  Michael's response? Okay, let her suck it. Which I want you to just,

• 41:09Annie Elise?

  okay, which, look, I know that that was incredibly graphic and very difficult to listen to, him instructing this seven-year-old girl to assault a three-year-old boy for his sick and perverted pleasure. I hate myself for relaying that message exchanged to you, but I feel like it is so important to realize what is happening and that there are such horrific perverts out there that prey on this, that watch this, that do this, and just, I don't even know how to wrap your mind around it. It is so evil, I have the shelves right now, because it's just making me fucking

• 41:52Annie Elise?

  irate. It is so evil

• 41:59Annie Elise?

  and so inexcusable. And to know that there are people out there who do this so callously, and just pay money because they want to see that, not realizing the damage they're inflicting on these children, what they're going through, their parents participating and instructing their own daughter to do this to their own son, it is so, I don't even know, I don't even know the word for it, guys, I really don't. And again, I didn't, I didn't want to share it, the chat log, and I debated, I went back and forth if I was going to or not. But I, sometimes

• 42:38Annie Elise?

  I think, truly, that you need to expose the darkness and put it into the light in order to not only evoke change, but to understand what is truly out, what is happening. Otherwise, it's hard, it's difficult to grasp that there is such darkness and such evil out there. And this is what was happening. This, this was just one of the thousands, hundreds of thousands of examples. And thanks to CRC's technology, they caught this monster, which that is why I believe in their mission and everything they do so, so wholeheartedly, because it's the only way to

• 43:21Annie Elise?

  combat this. As technology advances, AI, all of these things, the only way to combat it is technology, fighting it together. There's no other way, right? And I'm sorry, I'm going a little off course right now with a rant, but I don't know. It's difficult to wrap your head around it, you know? And look, sharing that was enough. I won't even get into the rest of the messages on this specific chat, you know, where Michael tells the co-conspirator that what he requested actually made him finish, and how he wants the seven-year-old girl to do more to another young boy, it is so vile and so twisted and perverted. And like I said, that was just

• 44:02Annie Elise?

  one example of some of the chats and live stream shows that Michael was a part of for years. That was one example, a drop in the bucket. So Michael was ultimately charged with six different things. Conspiracy to exploit a child, exploitation of a children defendant, commission of a sex offense by an individual required to register on the, as an offender, and also possession of CSAM. Now, for this case in particular, there were two really positive outcomes. Michael and Raquel were both arrested, and they were sentenced to what the judges saw fit. And Raquel's children were rescued and they were taken to safety. But this is just

• 44:44Annie Elise?

  one online child exploitation case of the many that happen all over the world every single day.

• 44:54Annie Elise?

  Now, the process of actually getting offenders like this identified and investigated, and ultimately behind bars, it can look a little different depending on the case. Some investigations move fairly quickly, and they can come together within just a matter of days, while others take much longer. And with crimes like these, that's often because investigators have to move very carefully. Every step has to be deliberate. The evidence has to be gathered properly, the digital trail has to be documented, and investigators have to make sure that everything that they are building will hold up when the case eventually goes to court. So even though each investigation has its own timeline, there are very specific procedures and rules that have to be followed

• 45:37Annie Elise?

  along the way. And in Michael's case, the process unfolded in a way that was fairly consistent with how many of these investigations are handled.

• 45:46Speaker 04

  Once they're inside and they find the digital evidence, they're then gonna examine those devices. They're, they're gonna examine them to find the evidence of child exploitation in whatever form they lie in. And then when they find it, in most jurisdictions, they will arrest the offender on scene and bring them to jail. So at that point, the government now gets involved, the prosecutor, that is, if they weren't involved already from helping get the search warrant signed with the judge. So at this point, the prosecutor now has less than 24 hours to get that individual in front of a judge, and it happens through the, the context of the US Marshals bringing them to court. But now the, the complaint, the charging police report, if you will, has to be written

• 46:31Speaker 04

  about what's happened and is the basis of the charges at this point. Usually, then, the next day, they're in court with the offender, the offender has provided a public defender or will hire a lawyer, and the government will typically seek for pre-trial detention or some high bond amount, knowing how dangerous these offenders are. As I mentioned before, a lot of these people are, have a prior history of abusing a child, they've got a prior record, some of them. And we believe that they are substantially dangerous, also because if they're released, there's a likelihood they might re-offend while they're out. So in about a week to two weeks, there'll be a hearing where the judge will determine what the offender's bond will be. And again,

• 47:13Speaker 04

  usually the government is seeking no bond, and the defendant, the defense will want some bond to be released. Whether he's released or not, at that point, the federal prosecutor then has to go into the grand jury and present the evidence of what the charges are, which are the basis of the indictment. And that is the charging document that will drive this case forward. Now, at any point that more evidence is found, the prosecutors can go back to the grand jury, add additional charges, amend charges, and there are laws restricting how long you have to do that and things like that. Once that's all done, then the government has to provide discovery to the defense. And that means the police reports, the digital forensic

• 47:52Speaker 04

  reports, the affidavits to search warrant, the, the results of those search warrants. What doesn't get provided, however, is any evidence of child sexual abuse material. That cannot be provided outside of law enforcement or the prosecutor's office. Federal law mandates that. And so if the offender or his lawyers want to come see any of that material, they would have to come to the FBI or Homeland Security or US Attorney's Office to view it. Once all that's done, maybe there are motions, sometimes motions to suppress, sometimes motions eliminate, all things possibly by the defense to try and either have the case thrown out or minimize some of the evidence for trial. And this happens in every kind of criminal

• 48:35Speaker 04

  case. But at some point, one of two things has to happen. Either the defendant pleads guilty, or the defendant goes to trial. In most cases, defendants decide to plead guilty because the evidence is typically overwhelming. These cases are usually very strong. And you know, when cases are based off child rescue coalition technology, or any other one, there's a digital case, there's a, there's an evidentiary trail that exists. And that's a very, very high burden, burden to overcome if you're a defendant. And so assuming the defendant pleads guilty, we then move to sentencing. And that is a whole hearing and, and a stand of issues unto itself

• 49:18Speaker 04

  that can go on for days sometimes. But if the defendant opts for trial, then a jury gets picked, evidence is presented, arguments are made, and the jury decides whether the person is guilty or not guilty. If guilty, we then move to sentencing. And that is essentially how a criminal case moves along, almost anywhere. But in child exploitation cases, generally speaking, the individuals will plead guilty.

• 49:43Annie Elise?

  Now, what's interesting about these cases is that like Greg said, most of the offenders will go into some kind of plea agreement. Michael's agreement in particular was to plead guilty to counts one through four instead of all six that were against him. And Michael was officially sentenced on June 6, 2024, and he was sentenced to 32 years in federal prison. Granted, he will likely be very old if he even makes it to his release date in March of 2051, but it is something.

• 50:13Speaker 05

  I will say that I was extremely, I was extremely happy with the outcome. We, you know, the Philippines was able to arrest Raquel Tagle, and she was sentenced to 91 years. She pled guilty. To give you an idea, she pled guilty and received 91 years. So that was a light sentence for her. And the four children were rescued between the ages of nine and 14. You know, Michael Baxter received a 32-year sentence. That's fantastic. DC did a great job. The Eastern District of Virginia, US Attorney's Office there did a fantastic job. He likely won't see the light of day either.

• 50:52Annie Elise?

  Now, I know that everything we talked about today is definitely a lot to take in. Every day, we're being made more and more aware of the dangers online, especially to our children. And you might be thinking, okay, well, I'm not a terrible human being. I would never be involved in live streaming any sort of activities like this. But just because you don't take part in it, doesn't mean that your children are safe from harm online. Like I said, this happens everywhere. And don't even get me started on Roblox, but it's happening everywhere. And as I wrap up today's video, I want to quickly go over a few helpful tips on what can be done to protect our kids in this day and age. Here's Greg's tip.

• 51:30Speaker 04

  One important safety tip to protect their children from offenders online. I would just say this. Talk to your children. Don't scare them. Don't ignore them. Talk to them. If they're going to be using an app or a website, you as the parent need to know about that app and website. Look at it first. Decide if it's safe for your child. Just because someone else is letting their kids use it, doesn't mean you have to. And in that same breath, when you're letting them download an app, you should also download that app. So that you know how to use it. And if there is an emergency, you know what to do. So to that end, I tell everybody I talk to, know the website

• 52:11Speaker 04

  cybertipline.org. Because if anything ever happens to your child, they need to know that they can go onto that website and report exploitation happening to them. And that tip will be routed through the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children directly to officers where the offender is or where the victim is. And those officers are internet, internet crimes against children detectives, specially trained to deal with this. So communication is the absolute key. We as parents did not grow up with this kind of technology in our hands. And because of that, naturally, we're afraid of it. When we don't understand something,

• 52:53Speaker 04

  that's what happens. We get afraid of it. So our kids know how to use it, and they know how to use it really well. If we don't communicate with them, and get on their level with it, how can we ever hope to protect them? Everything Child Rescue Coalition does is on the back end. Because by the time images where offenders are doing what they're doing to a child online, the crime's already happened. Parents have the opportunity to protect their children on the front end. Talk to them. You tell them not to drink and drive. You tell them not to do drugs. Tell them, think before you post. Just pause before you share. Think, should I be communicating with this person? Because if we don't tell them, the offenders are already get to them.

• 53:35Annie Elise?

  As for Special Agent Mike, who has worked on countless cases, his tip is this.

• 53:41Speaker 05

  As far as online safety goes for children, I've, I've been working in a space for a little over a decade now. And obviously, you know, AI wasn't a thing when I first started. So this landscape is changing almost by the day. I would say just be present in your children's lives. Know what they're doing online. And let them know that you know what they're doing online. Have communication with them about safety. Open, but not scary communication. And just say, look, you know, we'll let you play this game, but my concern is there's a chat feature on this game. And while you may not be doing anything wrong, there's a lot of people in this world that may

• 54:21Speaker 05

  be searching out to do you harm. And it's my job to teach you how to be safe. So that when you're an adult, you can teach your children how to be safe. So we're going to take this journey together. And hopefully, what that does is, it not only gives you insight into the day-to-day activities of your children online, but when something inevitably happens, because it will, they come to you. That is the biggest thing. If, if you don't leave the line of communication and trust open to your children, they won't come to you when something happens. You won't know that it happens. And that's when tragedy strikes, honestly. We see it all too often. So just communicate with your children, trust them, know that they'll make mistakes,

• 55:05Speaker 05

  but be that person for them to come to without judgment, but with good guidance.

• 55:13Annie Elise?

  Thank you so much for watching. I know that this was a little bit different from the episodes that we traditionally do, but I felt like it was incredibly important to not only share what the reality is of what's going on out there, but also highlight a fantastic organization that is helping combat that. And like I said at the beginning of this video, you can of course choose to donate to CRC if you wish. That's absolutely your independent decision. But I want you to feel good about the fact in knowing that just by watching my channel and hearing my episodes and listening, you are supporting them directly. Because as I said, a portion of all of our proceeds go directly to CRC. And they are an organization that I

• 55:54Annie Elise?

  think is just doing incredible work. And if I can be a drop in the bucket, supporting their mission and helping that technology advance, I know you're like me and you share the same thoughts. Absolutely. No brainer. No questions asked. So thank you so much for listening. And please, instead of signing off and saying, stay safe, I'm going to just say this. Protect your kids. All right. Bye.

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