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Ian Pisarchuk, 26, admitted that for four years he used anonymous Snapchat accounts to threaten and torment dozens of women and girls, some as young as 12, into sending him sexually explicit photos and videos, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said.
Pisarchuk was arrested on June 8, 2021, after police got a complaint from an alleged victim saying she had gotten messages from an unknown individual on Snapchat, DA Matt Weintraub said.
Authorities later found that Pisarchuk used the "quick adds" feature on Snapchat to add his victims, and then "obtained nude photos and sexual videos by means of extortion, and threatened to harm them if they didn’t comply with his demands," the DA previously said.
Pisarchuk had six known victims at the time, and after a news conference to announce his arrest, nine more victims were identified, and additional charges were filed on July 27, 2021, authorities said.
Pisarchuk is believed to have done the same to Lindsey Piccone, whose body was found in Tyler State Park on Nov. 1, 2016, the DA said. Her death was later ruled a suicide.
Two months before her death, Piccone was harassed, threatened, and extorted by an apparent stranger on Snapchat, whose account was linked to Kutztown University, the DA's office said.
In a note, Piccone wrote that “before someone else ruins my life, I’m ruining mine," Assistant District Attorney Brittney Kern said.
Detectives at the time found too many IP addresses to narrow down the investigation, and no real suspect.
"The investigation went cold and stale, but that remained open until yesterday when they learned [Pisarchuk] attended Kutztown on a football scholarship from 2014 to 2018, while Piccone was harassed," Weintraub said last June.
A forensic analysis of Pisarchuk's electronic devices confirmed the nine additional allegations brought forward in July 2021, authorities said.
"Pisarchuk would seek to build rapport with the victims before threatening to expose or do harm to them or others if they did not comply with his demands for sexually explicit images and videos," the DA's office said.
"He used a number of different Snapchat usernames during the four years he tormented young women and girls on the social media site."
”I applaud the survivors of this defendant’s insidious attempts to ruin their lives for their bravery,” DA Matt Weintraub added.
“He extorted his victims through his criminal actions. Now it is he who will pay the price, not them.”
Pisarchuk pleaded guilty to 67 counts of possession of child pornography, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, sexual extortion, stalking, harassment, and other related offenses.
His sentencing was deferred for 90 days as he undergoes an evaluation by the Sex Offender Assessment Board, authorities said.
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