A Woman’s Tattoos Led To Her Arrest In Global Child Porn Investigation


A woman was arrested on Thursday night on suspicion of making and appearing in child porn photos that have been widely circulated over the past decade.

According to NBC News, Letha Mae Montemayor, 52, was arrested hours after authorities released images of her taken from the same photos.

The authorities received five tips from people who told them that distinctive tattoos helped them recognize a woman seen in photos released Thursday.

The photographs were released as part of a child molestation investigation and helped lead to an arrest in an 11-year-old case involving “widely circulated” child pornography images.

Authorities believe that Montemayor is the individual identified as “Jane Doe” in a criminal complaint filed Monday. She appears with an unidentified male in a series of photographs that were released Thursday afternoon as investigators hunted for leads in the child pornography case.

Montemayor, 52, was arrested on Thursday night outside an apartment complex in North Hills in the San Fernando Valley.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton said:

“Just after ICE’s nationwide plea for public assistance, five separate community tips led to the arrest of Jane Doe. This arrest would not have happened without the public’s help, and it demonstrates how much individual citizens can do to help law enforcement attack crime.”

Forensics analysis of the images revealed details in the pictures, such as Montemayor’s tattoos (a sleeping cat, butterfly and other designs).

Besides the tattoos, other clues in the background of the images were discovered by Chicago Homeland Security agents in 2007 and passed along to LA agents. These clues prompted investigators to focus on locations in the San Fernando Valley.

According to USA Today, Montemayor is expected to make a federal court appearance Monday on charges of producing child pornography and conspiracy. Each one of the charges carries a minimum 15-year prison sentence.

The authorities are still looking for an unidentified man that was also seen in child pornography images.

Share this article: A Woman’s Tattoos Led To Her Arrest In Global Child Porn Investigation
More from Inquisitr