Tucson girl, 12, one of 41 victims to receive lewd mail from same man

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Tyler Wing - View Bio

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Police across the state of Arizona are trying to find whoever is sending sexually explicit letters to young girls.

"The suspect we're talking about is a self proclaimed sexual predator," says Sgt. Darren Burch who leads The Phoenix Police Department's Silent Witness program. "His admitted preferred victim age is 9 to 10."

Police say for the past ten years the suspect has targeted girls as young as six, tracking them through media reports like newspapers.

Investigators say the letter writer has never made any physical contact with victims.

Over the past ten years 80 letters have been discovered.

41 to girls in Arizona including two cases in Tucson.

Burch says the very first known victim was a 12-year-old Tucson girl in 1999, "This one absolutely appears to be ground zero in the sense that we don't have anything prior to this."

Reports show the suspect identified the girl from a swim meet photo in the newspaper. "He even sends her a copy of the newspaper,"Birch says.

Police say the postal predator may have even called the Tucson victim just three days before sending the letter. "On the phone he said he was an A.S.U. photographer wanting to take pictures of her."

Burch says he's digging deeper to find information on the second Tucson victim. "This is someone who is grandfather-like. He's a wordsmith, educated, he has a limited criminal record, if any at all."

Investigators have obtained the suspects D.N.A but there's been no match in criminal data bases.

They also says the suspect uses words and phrases from a different era like kid-o, golly and love bud. "He uses love bud in a very disturbing sexual context describing a part of a young girls anatomy," says Birch.

The Silent Witness program is offering a $1000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Call 480-WITNESS to report tips.