Carthage man arrested for sexual exploitation of underage Michigan girl

An initial appearance was held this morning in U. S. District Court in Springfield for a Carthage man charged with sexually exploiting an underage girl.

The arraignment and detention hearing for Charles Ward Kuentzel, 25, Carthage, is scheduled for 10 a.m. September 1. He is being held without bond in the Greene County Jail.

According to the probable cause affidavit, law enforcement's trail to Kuentzel began with a report from the mother of a Canton, Michigan girl who told police her daughter was involved in an inappropriate online relationship with an adult male and provided screenshots in which the man's face was visible.

From the screenshots, the FBI determined Kuentzel and the girl were engaged in video chats with Kuentzel saying in one such chat that he wanted her "to get on her knees," and then graphically described things she could do to herself and things he could do to her.

A database search found a partial name match for Kuentzel and a Missouri driver's license identification of him that appeared to be the same man who was involved in the conversations.

In an interview with the FBI, the child said they had begun their chats at around the start of the 2020-2021 school year and the chats later took a sexual turn and the two began showing each other "different parts of our bodies."

Jane Doe identified the photos of the redheaded Kuentzel as the man she knew as "Charlie." The photos included photos of his genital area which also featured red hair. She also identified her own photos.

Federal agents conducted a search warrant of Kuentzel's home on Pine Street in Carthage August 18 and confiscated his cell phone, which contained the same photos the FBI had been investigating. 

A search of Kuentzel's criminal history revealed an earlier incident in which he had been involved with an underage child.

His criminal history included a 2018 arrest for kidnapping out of Jasper County, Missouri, a 2018 arrest for unlawful restraint out of the Wheeler County, Texas Sheriff's Office and a 2018 guilty plea to harboring a runaway child in the 31st District in Texas.

That case was described in an August 31, 2017 Carthage Police Department news release:

On 08/31/2017 21-year-old Charles Ward Kuentzel Jr. was arrested at his residence, 520 Pine St. in Carthage, on a felony warrant out of Wheeler County, Texas for unlawful restraint for taking a 15-year-old female, missing from her home in Texas since 07/24/2017, and bringing her to Missouri. The juvenile was found and is being reunited with her family.

Charles was also charged here with kidnapping 1st degree, endangering the welfare of a child 1st Degree and fugitive from justice.

The Jasper County charges were dismissed when Kuentzel was extradited to Texas, where a plea agreement was reached and he pleaded guilty to harboring a runaway child.

In an interview with the FBI, the child said they had begun their chats at around the start of the 2020-2021 school year and the chats later took a sexual turn and the two began showing each other "different parts of our bodies."

Jane Doe identified the photos of the redheaded Kuentzel as the man she knew as "Charlie." The photos included photos of his genital area which also featured red hair. She also identified her own photos.

Federal agents conducted a search warrant of Kuentzel's home on Pine Street in Carthage August 18 and confiscated his cell phone, which contained the same photos the FBI had been investigating.