CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A Cheyenne man has been arrested for nine counts pertaining to child pornography last week.
Ryan Lance Lidstrom, 45, was seen by Judge Sean Chambers in Laramie County Circuit Court on Friday, Jan. 6, where he was charged with three counts of possessing child pornography and six counts of creating/receiving child pornography.
In an affidavit of probable cause, an investigation into Lidstrom began on Jan. 27, 2022. A special agent assigned to the Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children was made aware of the sharing of child pornographic material by a person who was believed to reside in Cheyenne. This information came from a cyber tip that was generated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The tip detailed the upload of 18 files that were suspected to have child pornography, all sent by the same user on the Kik Messenger app. Upon further investigation, it was determined that they did depict child pornography, with one of the videos showing a female between the ages of 3 and 5.
On Feb. 1, 2022, the special agent received another tip that detailed 29 files of suspected child pornography, which came from a separate account. Upon investigation of the files, all were determined to be pornographic videos featuring young girls, some between the ages of 9 and 11. These files were sent to other users on the Kik app.
With the assistance of the Division of Criminal Investigation Intelligence Unit, it was determined that the owner of both accounts was Lidstrom. The special agent had put in a search warrant for the accounts, and when the results of this warrant were returned on July 25, 2022, another 15 videos depicting child pornography were found to be connected to Lidstrom.
On Nov. 29, 2022, the special agent received another cyber tip that detailed three files that were said to contain child pornography. This was from a separate account on the Kik app and all videos were found to contain child pornography with a girl between the ages of 5 and 7. After further investigation, it was determined that this account was also associated with Lidstrom.
In January 2023, Lidstrom was arrested at his place of employment in Cheyenne.
His bond was set at $50,000 cash, and his preliminary hearing has been set for Jan. 13 in the Laramie County Circuit Court.
