At the conclusion of an undercover online child exploitation investigation, police arrested a Palo Alto man this morning for an array of charges.
On March 5, 2024, detectives from the Palo Alto Police Department received information from the Burke County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office and Georgia Bureau of Investigation about an adult male suspect who had used a mobile anonymous communications app to correspond with an undercover officer in Georgia posing as a 12-year-old girl. The suspect said he was 55 years old. The suspect provided his cell phone number and then used it to send first photos of himself and later child sexual abuse material (formerly referred to as “child pornography”) to the officer.
Through follow-up investigation, Palo Alto detectives identified the owner of the cell phone number and were able to determine that it was the same person who had been corresponding with the undercover officer, and that he was a 67-year-old male who lives in Palo Alto. Palo Alto detectives created their own undercover account using the same mobile app, posing as a 12-year-old girl. Four days later, the suspect found the Palo Alto undercover account in the app, proactively messaged it, and began to correspond with the undercover detective. He provided his same cell phone number and sent photos of himself. Eventually, over the course of multiple online chats spanning several days, the suspect solicited the detective for explicit images, sent child sexual abuse material to the detective on multiple occasions, and made arrangements to meet them in person with the intent to perform sex acts (though the physical meeting never occurred).
Detectives presented the case to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, who filed four felony charges (contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sex offense, attempted lewd act on a child under 14, possession of child pornography, and transmitting harmful matter to a person believed to be a minor) and one misdemeanor (arranging a meeting with a person believed to be a minor to engage in lewd behavior) against the suspect. On April 8, a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge signed a warrant for the suspect’s arrest.
On Thursday, April 11, 2024, at about 10:45 a.m., detectives went to the suspect’s home in the 1400 block of Dana Avenue and arrested him without incident. They then served a search warrant at his home looking for evidence of related criminal activity.
Police booked the suspect, 67-year-old Robert Kinney Wenzlau of Palo Alto, into the Santa Clara County Main Jail pursuant to the warrant. His booking photo is available at https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/News-Articles/Police-Department/Police-Arrest-Man-for-Sex-Offenses-After-Undercover-Operation. The suspect is a member of Palo Alto’s Stormwater Management Oversight Committee.
Detectives believe it is possible that other victims exist and are asking that anyone who believes they may have been victimized by the suspect to contact the Palo Alto Police Department by calling our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413.
It should be noted that police are not identifying the mobile anonymous communications app used at this time, as it is part of ongoing investigations.
For parents interested in learning more about how to keep their children safe online, visit the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program website at www.svicac.org.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to [email protected] or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.
