FBI agents arrest man accused in Minnesota of luring men to sexually exploit young children

Law enforcement has arrested a man accused of socializing virtually with other men — at times posing as women — and letting them sexually exploit the youngest children.

U.S. Marshals arrested 36-year-old William Guy Amick III on Tuesday in Milan, Michigan, about 40 miles southwest of Detroit, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) announced.

A Marshals Service spokesperson was contacted for further information on the circumstances leading to Amick’s arrest.

Amick, of suburban Pittsburgh, remained held without bail in the Washtenaw County Jail Thursday morning until Minnesota officials attempted to extradite him to Fillmore County.

On April 18, Amick was charged in district court with 13 counts of child sexual abuse, including using minors in sexual performances, soliciting a child to engage in sexual conduct and possessing pornographic works involving minors.

According to the indictments, the numerous incidents involved male and female victims ranging in age from newborns to seven years old.

Amick committed many of these crimes while living in the southern Minnesota communities of Mabel and Rushford for approximately two years until May 2023, the indictment says.

He often posed as a woman when interacting with men online, using artificial intelligence to create material about the men sexually abusing their own children, the BCA added.

The BCA said tips to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2021 and 2022 alerted the agency to Amick and his suspicions of child sexual exploitation.

According to the charges:

In May 2023, the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office tracked Amick to a home in Rushford, where he lived for nearly two years until he moved out.

The BCA located two electronic devices left behind by Amick and found that they contained more than 200 videos of Amick in chats over a three-month period with a man in Washington state and a girl aged 6 or 7. During the chats, Amick changed his voice and appearance using artificial intelligence to portray a woman he called Alice who instructed the man to sexually abuse the girl. Amick recorded the abuse.

The man, John Thompson, was arrested and charged in Washington state. The BCA added that investigators are continuing to try to identify the other men linked to Amick.

Amick is wanted in Pennsylvania for a similar case.

Investigators believe Amick received payments from people who supported his online activities, but the financial supporters may not have known his true identity or been aware of his criminal activities, the BCA said.