Gregory Orear

Lincoln County Journal

TROY – Law enforcement arrested a former Troy resident Friday afternoon at his Lake St. Louis home on charges he possessed and created child pornography.

According to a probable cause statement filed in Lincoln County, Greyson Ashenbremer, 31, created “multiple” images of himself and his 3-4-year-old nephew. In the images, a nude Ashenbremer is allegedly sexually assaulting his nephew, who appears to be sleeping.

A detective with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department, Chris Hollingsworth, found the images when interviewing Ashenbremer at his Troy residence March 31 where he was living at the time.

Hollingsworth, who also works with the St. Charles County Cyber Crime Task Force and FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, had previously received information the social media platform Snapchat observed two files of child pornography on Ashenbremer’s account.

The videos allegedly showed a “prepubescent” male and female engaged in sexual acts with adult males.

After receiving the initial report from Snapchat, investigators found six additional cyber-tipline reports associated with Ashenbremer’s accounts.

 When law enforcement executed the search warrant at Ashenbremer’s home in March, he all but admitted to possessing the child pornography.

“I asked Greyson if he had any clue as to why we were there with him,” Hollingsworth wrote in the probable cause statement. “Greyson stated, probably the underage porn.”

During that interview, Ashenbremer stated he had only been looking at child pornography a short amount of time and that he only traded it and never sold it.

He also told investigators how he had obtained it online.

“Greyson says he gets it from chat groups on Telegram,” Hollingsworth wrote. “Greyson said a chat group will only be up for a few days at a time, he will get the videos, and the group will be taken down.”

After the sheriff’s department concluded its investigation, the Lincoln County prosecuting attorney’s office received it Friday and issued an arrest warrant charging Ashenbremer with possession of child pornography and two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor child. The pornography charge is a Class B felony with a 5-15 year prison sentence while the exploitation charge is a Class A felony with a sentence of 10-30 years.

Ashenbremer is in custody at the Lincoln County jail on a $500,000 bond.