Christopher Reynolds was arrested late Wednesday after driving nearly an hour from New Jersey to a motel in Bensalem, where investigators say he showed up for what he believed was a sex meeting with a 13-year-old girl. He was taken into custody as soon as he entered the motel, ending a brief undercover communication that began two days earlier.
That arrest now sits at the center of a sting operation that prosecutors say was designed to catch people trying to exploit children before they could get close. Reynolds, 35, from Browns Mills in Burlington County, was charged with criminal attempt to engage or perform a commercial sex act with a minor, criminal attempt to commit trafficking in individuals, and related crimes. He was held in lieu of $500,000 bail.
District Attorney Joe Khan said the arrest “sends an unmistakable message to those who look to prey on children in our communities,” and said his office’s revamped anti-trafficking operation will use every tool and technology at its disposal. He called it “the exact kind of proactive, aggressive enforcement” the public can expect, a sign that prosecutors are pushing these cases before an alleged encounter turns into a real-world harm.
Investigators said Reynolds first responded on Tuesday to an ad on a website offering taboo with an underage girl. From there, the undercover detective posing in the case kept the conversation going, and Reynolds agreed to meet the girl’s mother at a motel on Lincoln Highway. Police said he believed he was talking to a woman willing to exchange money for sex with her 13-year-old daughter.
The communication almost unraveled when detectives declined to send nude images of the girl, investigators said. Reynolds nearly called off the appointment, then relented after detectives sent a digitally de-aged photo of a female detective. According to the affidavit of probable cause, he was adamant about graphic details while negotiating the price and even offered a higher rate so the woman could buy her daughter an emergency contraceptive pill.
When Reynolds arrived, investigators said they arrested him immediately and found $300 and a bottle of Mountain Dew on him. The detail is small, but it matches the larger shape of the case: prosecutors say the trip, the money and the motel were all part of an attempt to turn an online exchange into a criminal encounter. Reynolds is scheduled to appear before a district judge for his preliminary hearing on July 16.
