BRISTOL, Va. — The Bristol Virginia Police Department said Wednesday that detectives arrested 29-year-old William Tollie of Bristol on multiple child-exploitation charges following a joint investigation with the Horn Lake, Mississippi, police.
The department said Horn Lake detectives contacted Bristol investigators on June 15 after the mother of a 15-year-old girl reported concerns about her daughter. Bristol detectives determined the girl had been communicating through the Discord application with a Bristol man, the department said.
On June 15, Bristol detectives executed a search warrant at a residence in the 1500 block of Overhill Road and seized electronic recording and storage devices, the department said. Additional warrants were obtained to collect text messages, photographs, phone records and Discord communications from two desktop computers and a cellular phone.
The Bristol department, working with the Virginia State Police High Tech Crimes Unit, said forensic exams of the devices recovered more than 8,000 images of child pornography. On July 1, detectives obtained 50 additional felony warrants for possession of child pornography based on the forensic evidence, the department said.
Tollie was charged with felony possession of child pornography, felony solicitation of a child at least 15 but less than 18, and felony use of a computer to commit certain sex offenses, the Bristol department said. He was taken to the Abingdon facility of the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority and is being held without bond. The investigation remains active, and the department said additional charges may be forthcoming.
