One arrested in IRCSO child exploitation investigation

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY − A child exploitation investigation led to the arrest of a Vero Lake Estates man on dozens of charges related to possession of child sexual abuse material.

Tyler Lester, 19, of the 8000 block of 105th Avenue, was charged with 31 counts of possession of child pornography and arrested Friday, according to Indian River County Sheriff's Office records.

A May 10 arrest warrant states an investigation began April 19 when law enforcement received a notice from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children of "child exploitation that occurred within Indian River County."

An image depicting the sexual abuse of children was uploaded March 7 to a search engine associated with an address within the county, according to the affidavit.

Looking into the source of the image, detectives found it was associated with a internet provider customer account associated with Lester's family home address.

After serving a search warrant and retrieving electronic devices in the home, they found on Lester's cell phone at least 31 files of photos and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children and sexually explicit photos and videos of children.

According to court records, Lester appeared in court and was assigned a $775,000 bail, and prohibited from possessing devices capable of connecting to the internet. He is in the Indian River County Jail. An arraignment is scheduled July 25.

Corey Arwood is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow @coreyarwood on X, email corey.arwood@tcpalm.com or call 772-978-2246.