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The Ohio creep linked to the death of missing Indiana teen Hailey Buzbee traded disturbing messages and photos with the girl a year before snatching her from her home last month – then led investigators to where her dismembered body was buried, federal prosecutors said.
Tyler Thomas, 39, was hit Tuesday with federal exploitation charges for crossing state lines to bring the 17-year-old back to his Ohio home and carrying out sickening sexual acts before she turned up dead, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
Buzbee was last seen near her Fishers, Indiana, home on Jan. 5, with her hacked up remains found deep in the woods of the Buckeye State on Feb. 2.
No charges have yet been filed in the teen’s death.
“The filing of these federal charges does not signal the end of the investigation,” US Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II said in a statement.
“Our prosecutors continue to work with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to collect and comb through evidence in pursuit of justice for Hailey and her family. We appreciate the public’s patience as the investigation proceeds.”
Prosecutors alleged Thomas, who met the teen gaming on Discord, drove about 160 miles overnight from Columbus, Ohio, to Fortville, Indiana, on Jan. 6 to pick her up at home after plotting Buzbee’s escape during year-long sexually-charged online chats.
Phone data allegedly tracked Thomas to a Logan Airbnb the night he grabbed Buzbee, then near the North County Trail in Wayne Nation Forest the next morning – the gruesome site where the girl’s mutilated remains were later found, court documents showed.
The sicko allegedly wiped his phone of disturbing Snapchat messages and sexually explicit photos of the teen taken at his Columbus residence and the Airbnb, where prosecutors said traces of blood were found.
Investigators also seized additional cell phones and computers from his home, uncovering obscene photos of a roughly 10-year-old girl and a vile Discord conversation with another teen who said she was in the 10th grade, according to the charging documents.
In one message, Thomas allegedly asked the teen: “Does baby carve parts of her body?” adding that she’d “look so good covered in red.”
During an interview with police on Jan. 21, Thomas allegedly told cops he believed Buzbee “was alive and safe” – but refused to admit to her murder, chillingly saying, “No, I wouldn’t tell you.”
He was charged with pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor and evidence tampering on Jan. 31.
Two days later, he led investigators to the exact spot where the teen’s lifeless body was buried under a thick layer of frozen dirt, prosecutors said.
Officials said his state charges will be dismissed as the federal case moves ahead.
Thomas is being held on a $1.5 million cash bond at Franklin County Jail.
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