A Kentucky man is accused of sex trafficking a 13-year-old girl and arranging sexual encounters with her and two Pennsylvania men while posing as a teen boy and threatening to harm her mother.
Zachary Lee McCauley, 29, of Louisville, is charged with trafficking in individuals, sexual exploitation of children, corruption of minors, criminal use of a communication facility, unlawful contact with a minor, sexual abuse of children, solicitation to commit statutory sexual assault and other related offenses.
The investigation began in February 2025 when the mother of a 13-year-old girl reported suspicious activities to the Bucks County District Attorney's Office.
Investigators learned that the 13-year-old girl was on the social media app Snapchat last year when a man who identified himself as “Jake” added her as a friend, officials said. “Jake” claimed he was 17-years-old and knew the girl was 13, according to investigators. Officials said “Jake” was actually Zachary McCauley.
Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673.
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After communicating with the girl for a few weeks, McCauley solicited her into taking sexually-explicit photos and videos which he made her send him through Snapchat, officials said. The girl initially refused but McCauley persisted and she eventually sent him more than 25 sexually-explicit videos and images, according to investigators.
During their conversations, McCauley threatened to hurt the girl’s mother, officials said.
"He used grooming tactics to lower her inhibition and then those tactics evolved into threatening to inflict harm upon her mother if she did not comply with his demands," Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said.
He also told the victim to create an account on the dating website Grindr and give him login credentials, according to investigators. When the girl told McCauley she couldn’t create the account because of her age, he told her to lie and claim to be 18, officials said.
A Kentucky man is accused of sex trafficking a 13-year-old girl and arranging sexual encounters with her and two Pennsylvania men while posing as a teen boy and threatening to harm her mother.
McCauley posed as “Jake” throughout all his communications with the girl, including on Snapchat, Instagram and in phone calls, officials said. The girl never met McCauley in person and only saw his face once when he accidentally turned on his camera during a video call on Snapchat, according to investigators.
After the girl created the profile, McCauley added images of her in various pieces of lingerie and created a fake ID card that listed the her as 18 years of age and under a different name, according to investigators.
McCauley then allegedly accessed the Grindr account and communicated with other users, soliciting dates with the girl. Whenever he couldn’t get access, he told the girl to send him screenshots of conversations she had with other users and then told her what to say to them, officials said.
McCauley arranged several encounters with the victim, which led to the girl meeting three men in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in October 2024, according to investigators. Two of the men had sex with the victim while the third man left after being suspicious of the girl’s age, officials said.
Investigators identified the two men who sexually assaulted the victim as Jon Thomas Van Ingen, 67, of Buckingham Township, Pennsylvania, and Randy Francis Quinn, 42, of Coopersburg, Pennsylvania, according to officials. During one incident, Quinn was on a Snapchat video call with McCauley as the sexual assault of the girl was recorded, investigators said.
Van Ingen is charged with one count of statutory sexual assault while Quinn is charged with two counts of statutory sexual assault, one count of photographing or filming a child sex act and one count of dissemination of photos or film of child sex acts.
“I praise the mother in this case because her instincts were correct,” Schorn said. “And I praise the victim in this case, she is only 13 years of age, and she is so strong and she is not to be blamed for what occurred. These cases cannot succeed without the amazing team of county detectives and the other detectives throughout Bucks County who make up our Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. They use the resources and their expertise to battle these crimes every single day.”
McCauley is currently in custody in Kentucky and awaiting extradition. Van Ingen and Quinn were both arraigned on Monday, April 7, 2025, and released on $150,000 unsecured bail. The preliminary hearing for both Van Ingen and Quinn is scheduled for April 24, 2025.
Schorn said the investigation remains active. Officials are asking any potential victims of Van Ingen and Quinn to come forward.
"If there are additional victims, we will make sure that this individual is prosecuted for those crimes," she said during a press conference on Tuesday, April 8.
NBC10 reached out to the attorneys for Van Ingen and Quinn. Van Ingen’s attorney had no comment. We have not yet heard back from Quinn’s attorney.