BALTIMORE, MD -- Court documents unsealed last week reveal that investigators on the Phylicia Barnes case asked for access to multiple e-mail and Facebook accounts as part of a child pornography and sexual exploitation of children investigation.
It is not exactly clear why just three single-page applications for search warrants filed in May were unsealed last week, but it is common practice that documents that investigators don't deem sensitive are eventually unsealed. In this case, the more detailed affidavits and warrants remain sealed in federal court.
The documents released indicate that investigators asked for access to three email accounts that all have portions of Phylicia's name in them, plus four other email addresses that appear to link back to men from Baltimore. One application seeks access to four Facebook accounts, all identified by numbers.
The 16-year-old from Monroe, N.C., vanished Dec. 28 while visiting her older half-siblings in Baltimore and her body was found nearly four months later in the Susquehanna River, an hour's drive from the apartment where she was last seen. Barnes' death was ruled a homicide, but police have not released the cause. There have been no arrests in the case.
State police, Baltimore police, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney's office all declined to comment on the documents, and the significance of the reference to sex crimes in them.
Phylicia's father Russell says he does not believe the case will turn on any link to sex trafficking or pornography, but he's grateful that police have investigated every option. "As I understand it, that’s a natural part of the investigation—to look for everything, to look for every kind of angle," he told NewsChannel 36. "I just think somebody was stalking Phylicia on their own, for what reason we don’t know, but we’re going to come to the bottom of it."
"We are hoping that this won’t take much longer," he said.
