Introduction
Warning: This article contains details about sexual abuse.
Specialist online investigator Greg Squire had reached a dead end in his efforts to rescue an abused girl his team had named Lucy.
Disturbing images of her were being circulated on the dark web—an encrypted part of the internet accessible only through special software designed to keep users untraceable.
Despite this high level of concealment, the abuser was careful to "cover their tracks," cropping or altering any identifying features, according to Squire. It was impossible to determine who Lucy was or where she was located.
What Squire soon discovered was that the clue to the 12-year-old's location was hidden in plain sight.
Squire works for the US Department of Homeland Security Investigations in an elite unit focused on identifying children appearing in sexual abuse material.
A BBC World Service team spent five years filming with Squire and other investigative units in Portugal, Brazil, and Russia, documenting cases such as a kidnapped and presumed-dead seven-year-old in Russia and the arrest of a Brazilian man responsible for five of the largest child-abuse forums on the dark web.
This unprecedented access reveals how these cases are often solved not through advanced technology but by noticing small revealing details in images or chat forums.
Squire cites Lucy's case, which he handled early in his career, as the inspiration for his long-term dedication.
He found it especially disturbing that Lucy was about the same age as his own daughter, and new photos of her being assaulted, apparently in her bedroom, were constantly appearing.
Squire and his team could determine from the type of light sockets and electrical outlets visible in the images that Lucy was in North America, but that was the extent of their geographic knowledge.
They contacted Facebook, which at the time dominated social media, requesting assistance in scanning uploaded family photos to see if Lucy appeared in any. However, Facebook, despite having facial recognition technology, stated it "did not have the tools" to assist.
Therefore, Squire and his colleagues analyzed every visible detail in Lucy's room: the bedspread, her clothing, her stuffed toys, searching for any element that might provide a lead.
Then they achieved a minor breakthrough. The team discovered that a sofa seen in some images was sold only regionally, not nationally, thus limiting the customer base.
However, this still represented about 40,000 people.
"At that point in the investigation, we're [still] looking at 29 states here in the US. I mean, you're talking about tens of thousands of addresses, and that's a very, very daunting task," says Squire.
The team continued searching for more clues. That was when they realized that something as ordinary as the exposed brick wall in Lucy's bedroom could provide a lead.
"So, I started just Googling bricks and it wasn't too many searches [before] I found the Brick Industry Association," says Squire.
"And the woman on the phone was awesome. She was like, 'how can the brick industry help?'"
She offered to share the photo with brick experts nationwide. The response was almost immediate, Squire says.
One of the respondents was John Harp, who had been working in brick sales since 1981.
"I noticed that the brick was a very pink-cast brick, and it had a little bit of a charcoal overlay on it. It was a modular eight-inch brick and it was square-edged," he says. "When I saw that, I knew exactly what the brick was," he adds.
It was, he told Squire, a "Flaming Alamo."
"[Our company] made that brick from the late 60s through about the middle part of the 80s, and I had sold millions of bricks from that plant."
Initially, Squire was excited, expecting access to a digitized customer list. However, Harp informed him that the sales records were just a "pile of notes" dating back decades.
He did, however, reveal a crucial detail about bricks, Squire says.
"He goes: 'Bricks are heavy.' And he said: 'So heavy bricks don't go very far.'"
This insight changed the investigation. The team returned to the sofa customer list and narrowed it down to clients living within a 100-mile radius of Harp's brick factory in the US southwest.
From that list of 40 or 50 people, it became easier to examine their social media. That is when they found a photo of Lucy on Facebook with an adult who appeared close to her—possibly a relative.
They identified the woman's address and then researched every other address connected to her and all people she had lived with.
This further narrowed Lucy's possible location, but the team did not want to conduct door-to-door inquiries, as an incorrect address could alert the suspect that he was under investigation.
Instead, Squire and colleagues began sending photos of these houses to John Harp, the brick expert.
Flaming Alamo bricks were not visible on the exterior of any homes because the properties were clad in other materials. However, the team asked Harp to assess—based on the style and exterior—whether these properties were likely built during the period when Flaming Alamos were sold.
"We would basically take a screenshot of that house or residence and shoot it over to John and say 'would this house have these bricks inside?'" says Squire.
Finally, they had a breakthrough. They found an address that Harp believed was likely to feature a Flaming Alamo brick wall and was on the sofa customer list.
"So we narrowed it down to [this] one address… and started the process of confirming who was living there through state records, driver's licence… information on schools," says Squire.
The team discovered that Lucy's mother's boyfriend, a convicted sex offender, was living in the household.
Within hours, local Homeland Security agents arrested the offender, who had been raping Lucy for six years. He was later sentenced to more than 70 years in prison.
John Harp was pleased to hear Lucy was safe, especially given his own experiences as a long-term foster parent.
"We've had over 150 different children in our home. We've adopted three. So, doing that over those years, we have a lot of children in our home that were [previously] abused," he said.
"What [Squire's team] do day in and day out, and what they see, is a magnification of hundreds of times of what I've seen or had to deal with."
Mental Health Challenges
A few years ago, the pressure of this work began to take a serious toll on Squire's mental health. He admits that when he was not working, "alcohol was a bigger part of my life than it should have been."
"At that point my kids were a bit older… and, you know, that almost enables you to push harder. Like… 'I bet if I get up at three this morning, I can surprise [a perpetrator] online.'"
"But meanwhile, personally… 'Who's Greg? I don't even know what he likes to do.' All of your friends… during the day, you know, they're criminals… All they do is talk about the most horrific things all day long."
Not long after, his marriage ended, and he began experiencing suicidal thoughts.
It was his colleague Pete Manning who encouraged him to seek help after noticing his struggles.
"It's hard when the thing that brings you so much energy and drive is also the thing that's slowly destroying you," Manning says.
Squire says that opening up about his vulnerabilities was the first step toward recovery and continuing the work he is proud of.
"I feel honoured to be part of the team that can make a difference instead of watching it on TV or hearing about it… I'd rather be right in there in the fight trying to stop it."
Meeting Lucy
Last summer, Greg met Lucy, now in her 20s, for the first time.
She told him that her ability to discuss her experiences was due to the support she now has.
"I have more stability. I'm able to have the energy to talk to people [about the abuse], which I could not have done… even, like, a couple years ago."
She said that at the time Homeland Security ended her abuse, she had been "praying actively for it to end."
"Not to sound cliché, but it was a prayer answered."
Squire told her he wished he could have communicated that help was on its way.
"You wish there was some telepathy and you could reach out and be like, 'listen, we're coming'."
Facebook's Response
The BBC asked Facebook why it could not use its facial recognition technology to assist in the search for Lucy. Facebook responded:
"To protect user privacy, it's important that we follow the appropriate legal process, but we work to support law enforcement as much as we can."
Support Resources
If you have been a victim of child sexual abuse, a victim of crime, or are experiencing feelings of despair and are in the UK, you can find details of help and support at bbc.co.uk/actionline.
