ODESSA, Texas — A UNT student was arrested in Odessa on Aug. 15 after police say he used Snapchat, Instagram and Drop Box to sell nude images of local women.
Carlin Van, 23, has been charged with five counts of publishing or threat to publish intimate visual material as well as three counts of sexual coercion.
Officers were made aware in March 2022 that a person on Snapchat was publishing images of women in partially unclothed states. The women were believed to be local and some were suspected to have been minors.
The images of the women were censored with an indication that the poster could sell or trade uncensored pictures of the women at a cost. Additionally, the pictures featured the name of the women.
Investigators found three different Snapchat names, an Instagram account, a Cash App user and a Drop Box account all linked to the promotion and sale of the pictures.
The accounts were traced to Carlin Van, who appeared to have images and videos from around 62 different women in the Midland Odessa area.
A few of the victims told police that they did not give permission to Van to publish the material that included them.
Multiple victims also told police that Van had used the Instagram account to coerce them, using their images to demand more content and threatening to send the material to friends and family.
According to police records, Van had been publishing these images and coercing women since November 2020.
Van is a student at UNT but also has a family address listed in Odessa.
Based on the evidence, Van was arrested and charged. He was given eight $3,000 bonds for a total of $24,000. Van was released on Aug. 15.
No further information on the case is available and the investigation is still ongoing.