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Last updated on Thursday, January 22, 2015
(DUBOIS CO.) - A cleaning lady at a Ferdinand hotel called police after she found videos featuring naked teen-aged girls showering and using the restroom.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the woman called the Perry County Sheriff's Department and reported her findings on December 4.
Police arrested 27-year-old Mark Upton on four felony charges of child exploitation and two charges of voyeurism.
Friday, he appeared in Dubois County Circuit Court where he entered a preliminary plea of not guilty and was assigned a public defender. His bond was set at $3,500. He is still in the Dubois County Security Center.
According to court documents, the cleaning lady found a pen, which she was not aware was a special camera pen that contained a Secure Digital "SD" card. The woman kept the pen for about a month, brought it home and it suddenly quit working.
Rather than throw the pen away, the cleaning lady's daughter decided to take the pen apart to attempt to fix it. When she did, she found the digital SD card. When they plugged the card into their computer, they found two movies.
The movies displayed a time stamp of March 12, 2008 and featured a man setting up the camera followed by two girls using the bathroom and then showering.
In one video, a man is seen placing the pen and then stepping from the bathroom. A girl enters and the camera records her using the restroom.
Police noticed the girl was wearing a sweatshirt featuring the name of a middle school located in the Indianapolis area. They believe the girl was a member of the middle school track team at that Indianapolis middle school. They also heard a girl's name mentioned during this first video.
The video ends when it appears the man recovers the pen after two girls use the restroom.
In the second video, police catch a glimpse of a wristband similar to those used at Holiday World and Splashin' Safari as a man sets up the camera again. He walks out of the bathroom and a male voice is heard telling the unknown girls to take a shower.
As one of the girls being recorded takes a shower, she begins singing a song. The song was released in April of 2014 narrowing down the time frame. This, added to the fact the girls were wearing swimwear and the wristband led police to believe the recording occurred sometime between April and September of 2014. Names are also mentioned in the video. Police were able to identify the two girls.
The sheriff's department then enlists the help of a computer forensic examiner through the Indiana State Police who was able to recover four additional videos on the SD card that had been previously deleted. One features a man setting up the camera and then filming himself taking a shower, which police believe was a test run.
According to court documents, Upton had several characteristics that made police believe he was the person who had placed the camera in the bathroom to film the girls.
Police eventually find Upton in a photo featured on one of the victim's social media pages. Through the image and BMV records, the investigators are able to directly link Upton to one of the victims.
Confident Upton is the suspect, police arrest him in Indianapolis.
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