Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Quentin Elijah Emslie, 19, was arrested today on 13 child pornography charges.

On June 23, 2024, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a CyberTip about a child sexual abuse (CSAM) image uploaded to a Snapchat account and then sent to another user.

Snapchat provided the username on the account, the date of birth (the same as Emslie’s), a phone number associated with the account, and a login IP address.

In response to a subpoena, T-Mobile reportedly told Gainesville Police Department (GPD) that the phone number associated with the account belonged to Emslie.

A search warrant was sent to Snapchat for the contents of the Snapchat account, and the response reportedly included over 100 “selfies” of Emslie and “numerous” pictures of his body and/or body parts, including his genitals. The response also reportedly produced two additional CSAM videos.

Snapchat also reportedly provided conversations between the Snapchat account and other users, and in those conversations, the suspect’s Snapchat account reportedly discussed “liking” girls around 12 or 13 years old and sent images to other users. In one conversation, the suspect account said he was 18 and the other user said she was 15; in another, the other user said she was 14. Both conversations show images being transmitted, and the arrest report notes that some of these showed Emslie masturbating or “accenting” his genitals.

A subpoena to Cox for the owner of the registration IP address for the suspect’s Snapchat account produced an address in Magnolia Place Apartments, where Emslie reportedly lived until about three months ago.

On July 17, GPD executed a search warrant at Emslie’s current residence in the 2000 block of NW 55th Avenue and made contact with Emslie.

Post Miranda, Emslie reportedly admitted that he owned the suspect’s Snapchat account but that the image originally reported by Snapchat was sent to him by another user; the detective noted, “There is no evidence that this image was sent to the defendant’s Snapchat account… by another Snapchat user.” Emslie also reportedly said the video he distributed was sent to him by another Snapchat user; the detective noted that this was true, but Emslie later distributed the video to another Snapchat user.

Emslie reportedly admitted chatting with Snapchat users who said they were 14 and 15 years old and identified himself in the photos of his face, body, and genitals.

Emslie has been charged with two counts of distribution of child pornography, two counts of possession of child pornography, and nine counts of transmission of material harmful to minors to a minor via an electronic device.

Emslie’s criminal history and bail amount will be available tomorrow.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.