Last Updated 8 months by Amnon J. Jobi | Amnon Front Page
A 45-year-old fitness education teacher most recently employed with Oak Hills School District was arrested after FBI agents found him in a hotel room with a nude, pre-pubescant child and determined he’d possessed and exchanged child pornography, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Mark Altherr faces one federal charge of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
The federal court documents say the FBI believes that, beginning at least in December of 2023 and continuing into July 2024, Altherr distributed sexually explicit material depicting children on a website.
The site, launched around 2019, specifically describes itself as “a child pornography community,” the court documents say.
The FBI’s investigation showed Altherr was an active member of that website and posted files to it, some of which depicted child pornography, according to court documents. The FBI determined Altherr had been using the site since 2021 and that, in that time, he made at least 262 posts on the site some of which were made just six months ago, according to court documents.
In one thread, Altherr allegedly replied to a thread titled “3 to 5 year old cuties only,” in which there were nude images of children. On another instance, Altherr allegedly replied to a thread that depicted children engaged in sexual acts with an adult man.
In other posts, Altherr allegedly described his own sexual abuse of children, including involving a “10 year old neighbor,” an “8 year old who had a crush on me” and a “4 year old I was looking after.”
The FBI determined that Altherr was a teacher after finding a post on the Delshire Elementary Facebook page in 2019 that welcomed Altherr as the school’s new fitness teacher at the Delhi Township school.
“I’m excited to start my first year at Delshire Elementary!” reads the post introducing Altherr.
As of July 30, Altherr was no longer listed on the Oak Hills School District website as a staff member. WCPO reached out to Oak Hills School District; we were told the district would release a statement, but have not yet received it.
Based on his employment status, FBI agents believed it was “necessary” to find Altherr. On July 26, they went to his home in Cincinnati but found he was not there, court documents say. A ping of his cellphone showed investigators that he was at a public location in Columbus, Ohio, according to the FBI.
An FBI agent was dispatched to that location in Columbus, where they found Altherr’s vehicle, court documents say.
“At approximately 7:54 p.m. on July 26, 2024, the Agent observed an individual fitting the description of Altherr enter the vehicle with a minor female,” reads the criminal complaint filed against Altherr.
Agents watched as Altherr drove himself and the child to a hotel in the Columbus area, the document says. That same day, agents reviewed images posted by Altherr to the website, including images depicting sexual abuse of children. Based on that, FBI agents said they believed the child with Altherr was “in imminent danger when she entered the hotel with Altherr,” the criminal complaint says.
As a result, agents executed a probable cause arrest on Altherr. Once he was arrested, the agents went inside his hotel room and discovered a young girl, completely nude, the document says.
Later that same evening, FBI agents executed a search warrant on Altherr’s Cincinnati home. During that search, electronics at Altherr’s home were found to have both images and videos depicting sexual abuse against children, some as young as 3-to-4-years-old.
Altherr is currently being held in the Butler County jail on retainer for federal officials.
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