MOWRYSTOWN, Ohio -- It's been almost a year since police searched a home in this Highland County village.
They confiscated computers, phones, hard drives and SD cards.
Two days ago, the report came back from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation: Jon Chad Pruitt had 14,000 images and 970 videos depicting child pornography, Mowrystown Police Chief James Webster said.
Investigators are still working to determine if Pruitt was involved in producing child porn, Webster said.
Franklin County's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force started the investigation. A lab will determine the children's ages and try to identify them, Webster said. He guessed many were between 7 and 10 years old.
"These are one of those crimes that can go unseen and unheard, and these photographs are being downloaded and distributed all around the world," he said.
Pruitt was booked into the Highland County Jail Tuesday on charges of illegal use of a minor in nude material, pandering obscenity involving a minor and pandering sexual matter involving a minor. He's being held on a $250,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court May 19, according to online jail records.
Mowrystown's police force is working with the Highland County Sheriff's Office and an FBI task force in Columbus on Pruitt's case, Webster said.
"We want to make sure that all the proper charges are applied for each one of the types of videos, types of images, and a lot of time and effort goes into analyzing that information," Webster said.
Elizabeth Latchford, who lives across the street from Pruitt, called him "a freak."
"He's sick," Latchford said. "Hope he goes to jail for life. Hope he never sees the light of day again."
The number of images and videos stunned many in the village, home to just 360 people. Webster said he'd never seen a case of such magnitude.
"You don’t think something from such a small town can happen," villager Taylor Skinner said. "But it does."
