ANCHORAGE – Police say 44-year-old Kevin Callander used an iPhone to film himself sexually abusing two young girls he knew, all while collecting dozens of similar videos from the internet.
Callander was arrested Wednesday and faces 13 charges related to possessing, distributing, and producing child pornography. He remains in police custody without bail.
His arrest is the result of an investigation that reaches back to August, when police allege Callander sent an illicit image of child exploitation to an undercover detective with the Anchorage Police Department’s Cyber Crimes Unit.
In October, police executed a search warrant at Callander’s home, where court records show he lived with his wife and raised five children. Police found two computers, one essentially clean; the other, filled with 1,300 videos. So far, police have identified 55 videos of child pornography.
Police said Thursday that some of the videos were homemade, shot on iPhones and other home cameras, and that Callander himself can be seen or heard in many of them.
“Most media that we’re seeing in this particular case are actual videos … that appear to be made by Mr. Callander,” said Lieutenant Nancy Reeder with the Alaska Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
She said that means Callander abused local victims over a span of years, even generations.
“I do suspect he has victims who are now adults, that he victimized when they were younger,” Reeder said. “We believe he’s been at this for decades, and some of those victims may never talk to us. They may never come forward.”
Police wouldn’t say how Callander contacted his victims. If he has other victims, Reeder said, they probably aren’t strangers.
“I think it’s probably safe to say that parents who don’t know the Callander’s personally … it’s safe to say that those parents are OK.”
Police said Callander is originally from Florida, and they are looking into his past there, but he’s lived in Alaska for the past 20 years. He was in the Army, but police said it’s not what brought him to Alaska. Court records show at least one explicit video among those made by Callander may have taken place in New Hampshire.
Investigators released four photos of Callander, ranging from clean-shaven to bearded. “It was important for us to put that out there, in case someone who saw him with a beard, who may not have seen him clean shaven,” Reeder said. “We want that information out there.”
Reeder said she did not think Callander used the beard to change or hide his identity.
Investigators said that, as of this week, they are only halfway through the computers seized at Callander’s home.
“Sometimes, we go into these scenes and they’re horrific, what humanity will do to somebody else,” said cyber crimes detective Joe Torres.
Police said they expect to find more videos — and more Alaska victims — before the case is closed.