The recent arrest of a U.S. Border Patrol agent accused of the sexual abuse of two children and sharing child pornography is tied to federal investigations in San Diego and New York, according to court documents obtained by Arizona Daily Independent.
In addition, local investigators are preparing to travel to a New Mexico prison to interview former Sierra Vista teacher and convicted pedophile Robert Kelsey, who is a person of interest in connection to last Thursday’s arrest of USBP Agent Dana Ray Thornhill.
That is some of the information revealed in two probable cause statements filed recently by Det. Tom Ransford of the Sierra Vista Police Department. Ransford was involved in the investigation and arrest of Thornhill who was taken into custody April 9 on multiple charges of sexual assault, sexual conduct with a minor, and sexual exploitation of a minor.
Thornhill, who has also served as a USBP chaplain, was booked into the Cochise County jail after an armed standoff at his church ended without any shots fired. He remains in custody on a no-bail order signed by a justice of the peace, but that order will be reviewed Thursday by a superior court judge.
In court filings, Ransford described allegations by two adults that Thornhill, 49, engaged in multiple acts of molestation when they were children. Both victims reportedly told a family member of the sexual abuse but it’s unclear from the document whether the abuse had ceased by then. The abuse was never reported to authorities at that time.
The investigation into Thornhill stems from an arrest made earlier this year of a New York man by special agents with Homeland Security Investigations. The man was accused of sharing child pornography -which is called sexual exploitation of a minor under Arizona law.
The New York man authorized an HSI undercover agent in San Diego to assume his online identity, and on March 13, that HSI special agent received five videos of child pornography via a chat platform from an Internet Protocol (IP) address that could not be traced.
Each of the five videos depicted children between ages 3 and 10 engaging in sexual activities with unidentified adult males, Ransford noted in one of his probable cause statements.
Later, the HSI investigator was able to get the sender of the videos to switch to a different chat platform that conducts IP address tracking. On April 1, Cox Communications complied with a federal summons by providing accountholder information for that IP address.
The account’s service address corresponded to Thornhill’s residence. There is no indication that Thornhill was suspected of any criminal activity prior to that report from Cox.
The next day, local investigators learned the same IP address was used to access two chat applications -Wickr and MeWe- to transfer more illicit images to the undercover HSI special agent. Investigators then spoke with Thornhill and arranged an interview at the Sierra Vista Police Department the morning of April 9.
But things didn’t go as planned, according to Ransford, even though authorities had Thornhill under surveillance while investigators waited at the station for him to arrive for the interview.
“Thornhill told Agents he was going to drop his wife off at an appointment and was seen driving to Whetstone,” Ransford noted. “Agents lost contact with the vehicle and after a few minutes observed the vehicle driving back to Sierra Vista” with no sign of Thornhill.
Thornhill’s wife told investigators Thornhill “acted frantic when he came into the house to get her to go with him to their church in Whetstone.”
Once authorities learned their suspect was at the Lighthouse in the Desert Church, they found him barricaded and armed. Neighbors were evacuated while the SVPD Tactical Unit negotiated for several hours to secure Thornhill’s surrender without further incident.
SVPD Det. Joshua Nicola and another HSI agent interviewed two people who came forward to allege they were molested as children by Thornhill for several years. One victim recalled an incident in which Thornhill tried to arrange a sexual encounter between the child and his friend Robert Kelsey.
In January 2018, Kelsey was arrested by SVPD on a New Mexico warrant involving a sex offense with a minor. He was employed at the time as a sixth-grade teacher at Huachuca Mountain Elementary School which is part of the Sierra Vista Unified School District.
Kelsey was convicted last year by a New Mexico jury of committing sexual contact with a four-year-old girl during a September 2017 incident. He is currently serving a six-year prison sentence.
Ransford confirmed to Arizona Daily Independent that a trip to Hobbs, New Mexico is being planned to interview Kelsey. Meanwhile, the investigation into Thornhill is ongoing, the detective said Tuesday.
Thornhill will be represented at Thursday’s bail eligibility hearing by a public defender. Prosecutor Lori Zucco of the Cochise County Attorney’s Office intends to ask Judge Tim Dickerson to keep Thornhill on a no-bail order pending trial.