Police officials in Colorado who arrested a 26-year-old man for having an unlawful sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl now say there may be at least 140 other victims, according to HLN.
The Colorado Springs Police Department began investigating Anthony Martinez last November after receiving a tip. The Florida teen claimed she met Martinez through Facebook when she was 12 and living in Colorado Springs, reported 7News in Denver. She said he would pick her up after school and then go to his house to have sex. At 14, she became pregnant with his baby, a girl who is now almost 3 years old. She also said Martinez once told her that “the oldest girls I go for are 16 and the youngest is 3.”
After a lengthy investigation, cops obtained an arrest warrant. With some assistance from Homeland Security Investigations and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Martinez was finally taken into custody May 11 in Flagstaff, Ariz., reported Denver’s Westword.
“To date, detectives have determined that Mr. Martinez may have had varying degrees of contact with more than 140 underage girls, to include at least 30 in the Colorado Springs area between 2011 and 2015,” said the Colorado Springs police via a news release, according to HLN. Police said that he met the young girls—from Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, New York and California—via social media, and he may have exchanged inappropriate photographs with them.
“The information that we have is that his age preference would be very, very young. Single digit ages all the way up to preteen, early teen ages,” said Sgt. Daniel Thompson of the Colorado Springs Police Department to Colorado’s Fox21 News.
Martinez remains incarcerated in Arizona, awaiting extradition. He is scheduled to appear in court July 6.
Meanwhile, detectives are asking anyone with information—whether they had personal contact with Martinez or know of someone who has—to call the Colorado Springs Police Department at 719-444-7000.
