AURORA | An Aurora man faces charges of child sexual exploitation after a nearly two-year Aurora police investigation found more than 1,500 images of child sexual abuse material from a cloud storage account, police said Thursday.
“Vandawalker’s arrest stems from January 2024, when Aurora detectives received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a cloud storage account located in Aurora sharing or in possession of child sexual abuse material,” police said in a statement.
Derald Vandawalker, 51, was arrested Nov. 6 by Aurora Police Department’s Direct Action Response Team, after a nearly two-year sexual exploitation investigation by APD’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit, according to the statement.
“Vandawalker was wanted on an active warrant out of Arapahoe District Court for 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a child,” the statement said.
After the initial tip, detectives received three additional cyber tips with over 150 child sexual abuse images from the same cloud storage account.
“Detectives served a search warrant at Vandawalker’s home, in the 3800 block of South Gibralter Street, and seized multiple devices,” the statement said. “A forensic examination of those devices produced more than 1,500 images of child sexual abuse material.”
The investigation is active and ongoing, and anyone with information is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720.913.STOP (7867). Tipsters can remain anonymous and could be eligible for a reward of up to $2,000.
The Aurora Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children Unit is partnered with Homeland Security Investigations, the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation as part of the Colorado Cyber Guardian Task Force, according to the statement.