Chasing Shadows

Episode 15 - Inside the Mind of an Online Predator When an arrest makes the news, we call them monsters. But if we only see predators as monsters, we miss the warning signs hiding in plain sight. In this episode of Chasing Shadows , investigator Sean Lacy takes listeners inside the psychology of online predators — not to excuse their behavior, but to understand how they think, how they justify the...

Episode 14- When Kids Become Offenders: The Collapse of the Line Between Victim and Criminal For decades, child exploitation cases followed a familiar pattern: adult offender, child victim. That model is breaking down. In this episode of Chasing Shadows , veteran investigator Sean Lacy exposes a disturbing new reality — one where children are no longer just being targeted online, but are being pul...

he Grooming Playbook: How Predators Prepare Children Before Anyone Notices Every day, children receive new phones, tablets, and gaming systems — and most parents worry about screen time. Very few think about grooming. But online exploitation rarely begins with sex. It begins with trust. In this episode of Chasing Shadows , veteran investigator Sean Lacy breaks down the real grooming playbook used...

A three-digit number is showing up on the phones of teens across American and behind it is one of the most aggressive sextortion networks in the world. In this episode, Sean Lacy takes you inside the criminal enterprise know as "764", an organized, international group responsible for targeting thousands of minors through Snapchat, Instagram, Discord and in every shadow of the internet.

Episode 11: Digital Guardians — A Deep Dive on Bark Technology built the problem—but it can also be part of the solution. In this episode of Chasing Shadows , digital forensic investigator Sean Lacy explores how Bark is helping parents protect kids in an increasingly connected world. From the Bark App that monitors messages and images, to the Bark Phone that puts safety first, to the Bark Watch an...

Episode 10: Telegram — The Hidden Network What happens when secrecy becomes the enemy of safety? In this episode of Chasing Shadows , Senior Investigator Sean Lacy pulls back the curtain on Telegram , one of the most encrypted and untraceable messaging platforms in the world — and the hidden dangers it poses for parents, teens, and investigators alike. Sean unpacks a real homicide case that began...

Episode 9: The New Omegle Omegle may be gone, but the danger didn’t disappear — it just moved. In this episode, Sean Lacy exposes how apps like Emerald Chat, OmeTV, and Chatroulette are filling the void left behind, offering predators the same instant, anonymous access to children that made Omegle infamous. Sean breaks down why these platforms are no safer, how they bypass moderation, and what hap...

Episode 8: The Kik Connection Where predators hide in plain sight — and parents think it’s just messaging. Kik has been around for more than a decade, but behind the chat bubbles and usernames lies one of the internet’s most dangerous playgrounds. In this episode, Sean Lacy takes you inside the world of Kik Messenger — where anonymity fuels exploitation and predators use everyday tools to trade, g...

Shadow Debrief #3 – The Amanda Todd Story | The Face of Sextortion When fifteen-year-old Amanda Todd trusted the wrong person online, she became the victim of one of the most public sextortion cases in history — a case that exposed how digital cruelty and manipulation can destroy lives. Sean Lacy takes a deeper look at Amanda’s story, the predator who targeted her, the investigation that brought h...

Episode 7 - Digital Blackmail: Inside the Sextortion Epidemic Sextortion has become the most widespread online crime targeting teenagers — and it’s growing fast. In this episode of Chasing Shadows , Investigator Sean Lacy exposes how predators manipulate boys and girls through everyday apps like Snapchat and Instagram, coercing them into sending private photos and then blackmailing them for money...

When the virtual world becomes the next crime scene. Whistleblower Cayce Savage stepped forward with a warning: predators are moving into the worlds parents don’t yet understand — VR spaces, avatars, and private Discord servers. In this episode, we break down what she revealed before Congress, how offenders use cross-platform grooming to target kids, and what parents and investigators can do to st...

Episode 6 – Discord: When the Conversation Leaves the Game Discord is one of the fastest-growing platforms in the world — a space where kids hang out, game, study, and connect. But behind the servers and voice chats, predators know how to exploit its features to groom, coerce, and trade illicit material. In this episode of Chasing Shadows , Sean Lacy takes you inside the world of Discord: what it...

Episode 5- Roblox: Building Worlds, Facing Risks Roblox is one of the most popular games in the world, with over 70 million daily users —most of them children. Parents see it as creative and safe, but predators see it as an entry point. In this episode of Chasing Shadows , host Sean Lacy unpacks a case involving a 10-year-old girl whose mother thought Roblox’s parental controls would protect her....

Shadow Debrief #1: The Chatroom Admin In this Chasing Shadows: Shadow Debrief, Sean Lacy takes listeners inside a North Carolina case that exposes one of the most dangerous positions online — the chatroom administrator. Twenty-four-year-old Nicholas Tyler Banks wasn’t just a participant in an illegal chat group. He was the gatekeeper — approving new members, distributing child sexual abuse materia...

Episode 4 – Paltalk: Behind the Chat Rooms Most parents have never heard of Paltalk. Predators have. In this episode of Chasing Shadows , Sean Lacy takes you inside one of the internet’s oldest chat platforms — a space where anonymity, video chat, and private messaging create the perfect cover for grooming. Through the cases of Sam Smith , a repeat offender who used Paltalk to target teens, and a...

Episode 3 – The Traveler Description: Some offenders don’t just hide behind a keyboard — they show up. Sam Smith was already a convicted sex offender when he entered an online chat room and began talking to who he thought were two 14-year-old girls. Over weeks of conversations, he described what he wanted to do, packed a bag with lingerie and condoms, and drove across state lines to meet them. Ins...

Description: Brad Roberts wasn’t caught in a dark alley — he was caught online. A repeat offender, he used a peer-to-peer program called Shareaza to download and trade child sexual abuse material. When his case went to trial, the jury handed him a 75-year sentence. But even that wasn’t the end. Later, Roberts escalated to a hands-on offense, proving what law enforcement already knew: CSAM isn’t a...

Episode 1 – The Major and the Manifesto: Grooming Exposed Description: When a CyberTip leads investigators to the home of an Air Force major, the discovery isn’t just shocking — it’s a window into how predators think. Buried on one of his devices was a 172-page handbook, a so-called guide to manipulating children. It outlined, step by step, how to gain trust, create secrecy, and escalate to abuse....

Episode 0 – Welcome to Chasing Shadows Predators thrive in the shadows. Parents can’t protect what they don’t see. In this introduction to Chasing Shadows , host Sean Lacy , a Digital Forensic Examiner and investigator, explains why he created this podcast and what you can expect. In 2024, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received over 20.5 million CyberTipline reports —eac...