LAS VEGAS – A girl was found "safe and well" after authorities released images of her from a videotape that also showed a man performing explicit sex acts on a younger girl.
The girl who was found, who detectives earlier said they believed was 10 to 12 years old, was not sexually abused and "never suffered as a victim at the hands of the perpetrator as the first girl has," Nye County Sheriff's Detective David Boruchowitz said.
The part of the video showing the older girl was shot in Nye County, a rural county near Las Vegas, Boruchowitz said. Details were not disclosed, and no additional information about the identity of the girl or the circumstances of how she came to be on the video was made public.
But Boruchowitz said investigators feared the younger girl was in danger. Sheriff's detectives were also seeking a man whose image was seen on the video.
Boruchowitz earlier characterized a segment of the tape showing the older girl as "some kind of peep show" filmed from a different room. Investigators were examining whether parts of the tape showing the younger girl were filmed with the same video camera, he said.
A 26-year-old Pahrump man, Darren Tuck, surrendered the tape to Nye County sheriff's investigators Sept. 8 after another man reported seeing it, Boruchowitz said. Tuck was later arrested on charges of promoting child pornography and possession of child pornography, both felonies, and released without bail pending an appearance Nov. 26 in Pahrump Justice Court. The top charge carries a possible sentence of up to life in prison.
Tuck told detectives he found the videotape in the desert outside Pahrump more than five months ago. Boruchowitz said investigators don't think Tuck made the tape.
Pahrump is a small town 60 miles west of Las Vegas.
The Associated Press generally does not identify or release photos of suspected victims of sexual abuse but is doing so in this case in the interest of the girl's safe recovery.