Valparaiso man charged with child exploitation — his fourth case in three months

Chicago Tribune

17-04-2025

A Valparaiso man, who is already charged with downloading pornographic images of children as young as 4, is accused of child exploitation by viewing child pornography.
Kaiden Aurenz, 20, was charged Wednesday with three felony counts of child exploitation. He is currently being held in the Porter County Jail.
The incidents occurred in November and December of 2024, according to the probable cause affidavit.
In January, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children gave the Indiana State Police three tips associated with skout.com and Kik, a social media app. They were associated with an IP address in the Valparaiso area, records state. Kik alerted the NCMEC when it became aware that child sexual abuse images had been transmitted through its app.
One had an image of what appeared to be a child under 12 years old performing a sex act, court records state, while the other contained the image of a naked girl who appeared to be under 12 with a naked man.
In March, police became aware of additional cyber tips, including one from Grindr where the suspect appeared to be targeting a minor. Another Kik tip contained an image of a naked girl under the age of 16, the affidavit states.
It wasn't Aurenz's first run-in with law enforcement.
On Feb. 18, he was charged with two counts of felony child solicitation after police responded to an incident arranged by members of the Northwest Indiana Predator Catchers, records state. Police viewed text messages between Aurenz and 'Melanie,' which was the decoy profile used by NWI Predator Catchers. Aurenz admitted he was supposed to meet a 13-year-old girl, court records state.
During a police interview, an officer asked if Aurenz's phone would implicate him in other solicitation incidents. He told police he was interacting with another person who he believed to be a predator catcher and he had downloaded 40-50 sexually explicit images from Telegram and Kik, the affidavit states.
Police asked to search his cell phone, which he was hesitant about. He claimed he made a mistake, then admitted to being addicted to pornography, records state. He claimed he never looked at his downloads, which was vague and led police to believe he did view them.
At least 23 images and videos on Aurenz's phone showed girls as young as 4 years old to the age of 15 involved in sexual situations, court records state.
There were additional pornographic images of what appeared to be adults.
Several text threads showed that Aurenz had tried to solicit these images and files, the affidavit states.
As a result, prosecutors charged Aurenz with four counts of child pornography in February and March.