Keith Grunfelder {BSO}
New details have emerged regarding the arrest of a Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport TSA employee who has been charged with ten felony charges, including eight counts of possession of child sexual abuse material.
According to a Margate police report, Keith Grunfelder, 52, was taken into custody on Tuesday, November 20, following an extensive investigation involving federal and local authorities into alleged child pornography crimes.
Reports show that the case was handled collaboratively by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and local law enforcement agencies, including the Margate Police Department.
The investigation into Grunfelder began in mid-2024 when MediaLab.ai Inc., the parent company of Kik messaging platform, reported suspicious activity involving a user account with the screen name “Phallusie627.”
The platform flagged the account for uploading inappropriate materials, leading to two CyberTipline reports submitted to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
According to investigation records, the reports detailed 12 uploaded files, including videos and images, later confirmed by investigators to depict illicit content, including children being raped by adults.
Noted in the report is that investigators found the flagged discussions included groups centered around incest, with several talks featuring parents claiming to be sexually active with their underaged children and messages exchanged with users identifying themselves as underaged.
Warrant records show files obtained from Grunfeld’s account contained child pornography, including children as young as one year old.
NCMEC referred the case to the South Florida ICAC Task Force after determining that the IP address linked to the account was located in Margate. Subsequent subpoenas and search warrants revealed the suspect’s identity as Grunfelder.
Records show allegedly had shared at least 12 explicit materials, engaged in sexually explicit chat messages between May and July 2024, and participated in messages that included disturbing discussions involving minors and incest-related topics.
The investigation revealed that during the discussions, Grunfeld identified himself as a Department of Homeland Security employee working for the Transportation Security Administration at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
On November 19, 2024, a search warrant was executed at Grunfeld’s home. During the search, officers recovered a smartphone that contained incriminating evidence, including flagged chat messages and images that matched those found in the Kik account.
Grunfeld was arrested at the scene and transported to the Broward County Jail.
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