On May 20, 2025, officers from the East Metro Human Trafficking Task Force created an undercover (UC) account depicting a minor female on the KIK messaging application. KIK is a free messaging app that allows users to communicate anonymously through user names rather than phone numbers. KIK is known to task force officers to be used in cyberbullying, grooming, and the exploitation of minors. On May 31, 2025, undercover officers received a message from username Dmax030, later identified as DANIEL THOMAS TRUOG, [DOB REDACTED]. Truog asked the UC if she liked his profile picture, which was a photograph of a male wearing jeans with an erect penis.
Truog then continued to ask the UC if she was curious and wanted to talk about sex. The UC then told Truog that she was 15 years of age and not very experienced. Truog replied that he would like to teach and show her things. The text conversation from Truog quickly devolved into constant talk about sexual penetration and sexual contact. Truog asked the UC if she had ever performed oral sex. Truog then stated he wanted to perform oral sex on the UC and sent various pictures of a crotch with pants on with an erect penis.
The conversation went on over several days. In one conversation, Truog said, "I can't get you into trouble but you can get me into trouble. I'm over 18.you aren't. I don't care though if you don't." Truog sent a photograph of himself to the UC. Officers determined that Dmax30 was created with the email tmwanger@outlook.com. Data from KIK showed that Dmax30 had sent thousands of sexually oriented messages to various other users. Dmax30 routinely joined online groups titled, "babysitting," "dog lover," and "teen." In the messages, Truog routinely asks users, who respond they are 15 or younger, their age, location and sex.
In the messages Dmax30 stated that he was 30 years of age and lived on the east side of Ohio near Youngstown. Officers used facial recognition on photographs used by Dmax30 to a booking photo of Truog and found the address of [ADDRESS REDACTED] in Mercer, Pennsylvania. Mercer is just northeast of Youngstown, OH. Officers executed a subpoena for the subscriber information of the IP address used by Dmax30 to communicate with the undercover officer. The results showed D. T., Truog's mother, was the subscriber of the IP address.
The subscriber address was [ADDRESS REDACTED] in Mercer, Pennsylvania. Officers called D. T., who stated that the only people living in her home were Truog and Truog's girlfriend. Officers contacted Truog, who admitted to having a KIK account three or four years ago, but denied using it to talk with teenage girls. Truog is out of custody. A warrant is requested as Defendant does not have ties to Minnesota in order to establish conditions.
