On December 30, 2024, Albany Police officer Joanna Bigler was assigned to a child sex abuse material (CSAM) case that originated from the telecommunications application Microsoft Skype Photo-sharing. Microsoft detected 2 files of suspected pornographic works involving minors uploaded by the Microsoft Skype user ID 3bffd12d8675b from an IP address from the greater St. Cloud region. Microsoft reported this cyber tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the MN BCA Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit.
Cyber tip #198968905 contained: A photographic image of a nude, prepubescent female with a flower in her hair. The child's buttocks and genitals are exposed, and she is on her hands and knees facing away from the camera on top of a green and white blanket. The MN BCA ICAC Unit found that the Microsoft Skype User ID and the IP address both belonged to SHAWN DALE DERICHS, [DOB REDACTED], the defendant herein. The defendant was associated with an address on 5th Street North, in the City of Albany, Stearns County, State of Minnesota.
Officer Joanna Bigler was able to confirm that the defendant still resided at that address. On January 15, 2025, Albany Police officers executed a search warrant on the defendant's residence and seized multiple electronic devices belonging to the defendant. On February 5, 2025, the defendant agreed to speak with Officer Bigler. The defendant claimed that a woman sent him a couple images of a young female around nine or ten-years-old, but it was "gross" and he deleted them right away. The defendant stated he should've contacted law enforcement right away when that person sent him those images but he wanted to try to find out who sent him those images.
He told Officer Bigler that there shouldn't be any other inappropriate images on any of his other devices. The defendant's phone was sent to the Stearns County Sheriff's Office for extraction of data. A successful extraction was completed on the defendant's Samsung phone, and upon review, officers found at least seven additional images of CSAM on the defendant's phone, which are summarized below: (1) Filename: 8572735265782619105. JPG – Image depicts a prepubescent female facing the camera, wearing a zebra print 2-piece swimsuit with a pink bow.
The child [NAME REDACTED] in a sexual way, while kneeling on a cream-colored blanket with the lower half of her bathing suit pulled down around her thighs. Her right hand is pushing the swimsuit down and her left hand is raised. The focal point of the photo appears to be her exposed genitals and vaginal cavity. This image was downloaded on September 11, 2024. (2) Filename: 6854496492193655512. JPG – Image depicts a prepubescent female lying on her back on a yellow multi-colored blanket, facing the camera.
