SHELBY COUNTY, TX (KTRE) - A Shelby County man has been arrested after an undercover sting revealed his intent to sexually assault and murder a minor, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Alexander Nathan Barter, 21, has been arrested following his alleged communications with an undercover officer regarding his desire to participate in a crime against a minor.
The affidavit, filed in Shelby County and obtained Monday by KTRE, details the investigation that led to Barter’s arrest.
The affidavit states that Barter authored a post on the dark web asking for anyone interested in allowing him to commit necrophilia and cannibalism to contact him, and gave two encrypted email addresses at which he could be reached.
A special agent with the Texas Department of Public Safety who was working undercover spotted the post. The undercover agent responded, posing as an interested participant who was offering his young daughter.
Barter allegedly replied, in part, "Nice! I’m in East Texas. How old is your daughter? Can we kill her?" and then went on to detail gruesome things he would like to do to the girl before and after her death.
In a chain of emails over several days' time, Barter created a plan to meet the “father and daughter," supposedly for a hiking trip, wherein the daughter would actually be taken to a hotel in Joaquin and assaulted, killed and cannibalized.
He instructed the undercover agent to purchase a burner phone, buy new clothes to wear after the murder, and told him to then go back home to Brevard County, Florida, and claim that his daughter had run away from home again.
"I’m not going to change my mind about this. I really want to do this," the affidavit said Barter wrote on Oct. 15.
During the investigation, agents subpoenaed subscriber information and IP logs for the person having the username of the person making the plans with the undercover officer. Officers contacted the service provider, and ultimately made the connection to Barter, the affidavit says.
On Oct. 19, as Barter was heading to meet the undercover agent and his “daughter,” he was met with a number of law enforcement officers outside his residence, instead. He had, just as discussed, a plastic trash bag and a knife with him, as he said that he would have in one of the email conversations.
The affidavit says that after being advised of his Miranda rights, Barter admitted to being the person who had been in contact with the undercover agent and that he had indeed made the statements attributed to him in the affidavit.
Because of this, the undercover agent confirmed that probable cause existed to arrest Barter for the following:
Criminal solicitation, a first-degree felony
Criminal Attempt: Capital Murder, a second-degree felony.
Conspiracy to Commit Capital Murder, a first-degree felony
Criminal Attempt: Sexual Performance of a Child, a second-degree felony
Barter is in the Shelby County Jail.
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