Trucker Trolled X-Box Live and Minecraft for Nude-Boy Photos, Sex Chats with Kids: Feds

An Illinois truck driver with two names used X-Box Live and Minecraft online games to entice and threaten children into sending him nude photographs, phone numbers and home addresses, according to federal prosecutors, and engaged at least one in sexually explicit chats.

Zack Sawyer, 31, indicted Thursday on two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of children, threatened to rape and kill two of the boys when his demands were refused or blocked, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Sawyer also threatened to kill the families of two Lockport boys if they exposed him, federal prosecutors allege.

Sawyer, who also went by the name Joshua Nield, contacted at least eight boys between the ages of 10 and 13, including boys in Lockport, Roselle and Rockton, Illinois, as well as boys in Virginia and Massachusetts, federal prosecutors said.

Sawyer lives in Georgetown, a small town near Champaign. But the truck driver proved hard to catch because he was always on the road. As he roamed the country, he also brazenly taunted law enforcement, according to federal authorities.

U.S. Marshals tracked him down in December 2014 and arrested him at a relative's Illinois home.

“This case was particularly troubling, because Sawyer was very mobile traveling through many states. Because of our close collaboration with the State Police and U.S. Marshals and the South Vermillion County Sheriff’s Department in Illinois, we were able to prevent any further victimization of young children,” U.S. Marshal John Gibbons said at the time of his arrest.

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He was brought up on local charges of extortion and exposing a child in the nude in Massachusetts and Virginia. Authorities say he's been trolling these online games for years, and federal charges were warranted.

In March 2010, Sawyer allegedly used X-Box Live to contact 12 year-old boys from Roselle, according to the indictment. Sawyer asked one boy to send him nude photographs and the addresses and phone numbers of the boy’s friend, and engaged the other boy in sexually explicit chats.

When the second boy blocked Sawyer from the X-Box Live system, Sawyer responded with a death threat.

In May 2010, Sawyer used X-Box Live to contact two 13 year-old boys in Hampshire County, Mass. Sawyer allegedly asked one boy to send him nude photographs, and when the boy refused, Sawyer threatened to rape him and kill him. Sawyer allegedly asked the second boy to send him naked pictures and when the boy refused, Sawyer also threatened to rape him, claiming that he had a drug that would paralyze people.

These allegations are the basis for the federal indictment.

In August 2010, Sawyer used X-Box Live to contact a 12 year-old boy in Rockton, Illinois. Sawyer asked the boy to send him naked pictures and to provide his address and when the boy refused, Sawyer told him, “I don’t wanna have to do anything bad.”

In January 2011, Sawyer used X-Box Live to contact two 13 year-old boys from Lockport. Sawyer engaged both boys in sexually explicit conversations and threatened to kill them and their families if they told anyone about his contacts with them.

As alleged in court documents, in approximately early August 2014, after Sawyer had been notified he was the subject of a Massachusetts arrest warrant based upon his solicitation of the two Hampshire County boys, Sawyer used MineCraft to contact a 10 year-old boy in Loudon County, Va. Sawyer allegedly sent the boy a picture of his penis, and asked the boy to send a similar photograph to Sawyer. On two occasions, the boy used Skype to show Sawyer his genitals.

In one online chat, Sawyer admitted to the boy that he was a “truck driver on the run from the cops.”

His years of terrorizing and exploiting children came to an end on Dec. 23, 2014, when U.S. Marshals arrested him.

If found guilty, Sawyer faces 15 to 30 years in prison and possibly a lifetime of supervised release after serving time.

The case is being handled in Massachusetts by U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Office will prosecute. The Boston office of Homeland Security Investigations and the Massachusetts State Police conducted the investigation.

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