Allegation: Carthage sex offender posed as girl in online games with underage boys

The Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney filed a failure to register as a sex offender charge against a Carthage man who allegedly came to the attention of law enforcement when he pretended to be a girl in an online game with underage boys.

James Russell Marlow (DOB 1992) was convicted of child molestation, in a case involving a 6-year-old boy in Lawrence County in 2014, according to court documents.

v

From the probable cause statement:

On January 13, 2025, The Joplin Police Department received an online tip in reference to a registered sex offender committing policy violations on the online game: PalWorld. PalWorld is an online game on the Steam Gaming Platform. PalWorld Moderators made the online tip after they noticed James Russell Marlow hacking into their game. 

During the moderator’s investigation, they noticed James’ online activity as suspicious. He was presenting himself online as a female and engaging in games with juvenile males. The moderators discussed their concerns with James online using James’ Discord Inc. account (User ID “267803189066203137”, Username “roseheartxx#0”). 

James denied hacking and continued to play PalWorld. PalWorld Moderators reported James for possible sex offender registration violations since he presented himself with a fake identity. 

During my investigation, I located multiple online identities James uses but failed to register on his Missouri Sex Offender Registration. 

Marlow confirmed the identities were his and added a few that had not turned up in the Joplin Police Department investigation and also were not mentioned in his sex offender registration.