OAKLAND, Maine - The state Computer Crimes Task Force and more than a dozen other Maine law enforcement agencies are working to identify whoever has posted nude pictures of a number of underage Maine girls on Facebook.
Detective Sgt. Tracey Frost of the Oakland Police Department says a person threatened to post 300 of the pictures and began doing so Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m.
Frost says authorities have been in touch with Facebook and the page was taken down, but another was put up in its place. Frost says that cycle has been repeated at least four times with pictures of girls from across the state.
"We've had girls who have been targeted in Cumberland County, Waldo County, Franklin County, Kennebec County, Oxford County, Penobscot County," Frost says. "So it's not really limited to just one region. that's why all the local police departments that I have been working with - we've been working with about 14 different departments - have gone over to Computer Crimes to be the lead agency."
Frost says authorities aren't sure what the motive might be or how the alleged perpetrator is getting the pictures. He says while some may be connected to sexting or so-called "revenge porn," investigators are also checking to see if people's individual cellphones might have been hacked and their photos surreptitiously downloaded.
