Molestation arrests: Large-font texting leads flight crew to act
A passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight to San Jose was busted on suspicion of attempted child molestation after a woman sitting in a row behind him read suspicious large-font texts he was composing on his smartphone and tipped off the flight crew, officials said Thursday.
The witness was sitting behind 56-year-old Michael Kellar of Tacoma, Wash., on the Southwest flight from Seattle to San Jose on Monday when she saw him texting about molesting young children on a large-screen smartphone with an enlarged font, according to the San Jose Police Department.
The woman told the cabin crew, and when the flight landed at Mineta San Jose International Airport, one of the crew members contacted a police officer stationed inside the terminal, police said.
Kellar was detained at the airport by police and investigators from the San Francisco FBI office, according to police.
Investigators learned a woman in Tacoma, 50-year-old Gail Burnworth, was exchanging sexual texts about children with Kellar, and she was taken into custody by the FBI at her home, police said.
Two children, ages 5 and 7, have been identified as victims, police report.
Kellar was booked into Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of two counts of attempted child molestation and two counts of solicitation of a sex crime. Burnworth was booked into the Pierce County Jail in Washington state on suspicion of sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree rape of a child and dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to police.