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Criminal Records - Most Wanted |
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Profile |
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Name: Kevin Bruce Cooper
(KBC )
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Sex: Male |
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Race: White |
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Age Now: 44 |
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Height: 6'4" |
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Weight: 225 |
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Hair (Color, Description, Facial Hair): Blond
He always has his hair cut short or shaved.
Kevin Cooper always has some sort of goatee or royale (also known as a "soul patch"). |
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Eyes (Color and Correction): Blue |
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Other Physical Characteristics: Kevin Cooper has both his earlobes pierced. |
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Wanted for :
Failure to Appear, Knoxville, TN;
Oct 07, 2005
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Location(s) |
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Last Seen : Knoxville, TN |
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Possible Location : Unkown |
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Last Known : Knoxville, TN |
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Traits |
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Kevin Cooper is very distinguished looking. He likes to wear stylish clothes that make him look younger, especially the brand Abercrombie and Fitch. |
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He likes to go bare chested to show off his torso. |
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Wears very short shorts. |
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He is a habitual marijuana smoker |
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He likes to surf. |
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He is openly homosexual and may hang out in gay bars. |
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Case Story |
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A Neighborhood Secret |
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Kevin Bruce Cooper was well-known in Blount County, Tenn. Cooper inherited his father's construction company, Cooper and Sons Construction, and police say he offered to give summer jobs to his employees' sons. What his employees didn't know was that construction work wasn't the only thing Cooper had in mind for the young boys.
In August of 2000, a teenage boy was brave enough to go to his school resource officer and tell them how he had been sexually abused. He pointed to Cooper as the abuser. Soon after, other boys came forward, also stating they had been molested by Cooper. Each of them had similar stories of how they had met Cooper through their summer construction jobs. They said he would lure them to his house with offers of alcohol or other drugs to get them relaxed, then he would abuse them. Then, in exchange for their silence, they told cops that Cooper would offer them money, gifts, or the use of his expensive sports car.
Police were shocked to find reports of Cooper's abuse dating back to 1985. And this was only the tip of the iceberg. |
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Daddy Dearest |
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Cooper had a strong penchant for young boys, and police say he would do whatever was necessary to get them. In 1992, police say Cooper met a woman who was going through a difficult time while raising her young boys on her own. He offered to assist her. After gaining her trust, Cooper offered to marry her so that he could help care for her children. The ceremony was short, and the bride and groom shook hands to seal the deal.
When the marriage fell apart a few months later, cops say Cooper paid his ex-wife $10,000 to take custody of her nine and seven year old sons. The oldest son later went to the police as an adult and told them that Cooper had raped him and his brother hundreds of times before he reached the age of 18 when he was finally able to leave. Police say he claimed that Cooper once hit him in the head with a blunt object, raped him, and threatened to kill him if he told anyone. He said Cooper forced him to agree to this before Cooper would take his adopted son to the emergency room for injuries to his head.
Cooper's adopted son also told police that the house was kept in such a way as to attract young boys. In every room Cooper kept toys, action figures...but he also kept a tube of vaseline in each room as well.
The terror didn't stop there.
Police say Cooper didn't stop at victimizing the local kids and his own adopted children. He started his own website, called KBC Productions "Secret Boys," that featured the slogan "Barely Legal, Always Nude," and featured a "boy of the day." After receiving a warrant on August 25, 2000 to search Kevin's computer, cops found between 30,000 to 40,000 images of child pornography - some featuring little boys as young as six years old.
Police also found evidence that Cooper had attempted to purchase a child from Brazil. He found a man who specialized in the sale of young foreign boys, and attempted to begin the purchase process in February of 2000.
In some correspondences about the transaction, Cooper was quoted as saying, "Hiring boys as construction laborers, cute as hell, and not afraid to work. [The child] plus someone else...still want the sex thing to happen. It sucks being horny all the time, doesn't it?"
When the deal went bust in August, Cooper decided that if the foreign boys couldn't come to him, he would go to them. According to police, on June 20 to July 17, 2000, Cooper went through the International Gay Travel Association's Tours To Paradise program to Thailand. There, he met a 14-year-old boy who went by the name of "Bird." Police say Cooper purchased Bird for the duration of his vacation, and made him his personal boy toy.
Six months after his return to the U.S., Cooper's actions finally caught up with him and he was arrested. Justice would finally be served...or would it? |
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Arrested Developments |
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An indictment was submitted against Kevin Cooper on January 8, 2001 for the state charges of five counts of rape, three counts of statutory rape, sexual battery, and aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor. The next day, Cooper was arrested and quickly bonded out with the instructions that he could not be around children under the age of 18, and that he could not use a computer.
Cops say during his time out on bond, they have reason to believe Cooper disobeyed these instructions and was still molesting children. He moved into a new house that had cameras monitoring the perimeter on all sides, and a gate preventing anyone from getting near the residence. Sources claimed that they saw Cooper have young boys over to his house, and that Cooper would transport the young boys in and out of the house after dark.
Cooper also received a federal indictment in 2003 for traveling overseas to engage in sexual conduct with a minor, attempting to transport a minor in interstate commerce for sexual purposes, receipt and distribution of child pornography, and possessing a computer that contains three or more images of child pornography.
Cooper was again released on bail.
Since the federal case was still being further investigated, police say the trial was contiunously set and reset.
During this time, investigators ran into a problem. Many of Cooper's victims didn't feel comfortable getting on the stand and testifying. In addition, many of those who were willing to testify were in trouble with the law themselves. Prosecutors feared that Cooper's high-priced attorney would would convince a jury that the victims weren't credible - somehow making them look worse than even Cooper himself.
Cooper entered into a plea bargain, and all the state charges were dropped, in addition to two of the federal charges - leaving only the two federal charges of being in possession of more than three images of child pornography and travelling internationally with the intention of having sex with a minor. After pleading guilty to these two charges, Cooper was given a jail sentence of 33 months. Instead of being immediately apprehended, he was released for 45 days to get his affairs in order and continue an outpatient treatment program he claimed to be taking.
"A lot of times you give someone some time to get their affairs in order [before going to prison], but in this case, I don't know why," said Sgt. Robert Schafer of the Blout County Sheriff's Department. "He was obviously a danger and a threat, but obviously the judge didn't see that...There were lots of people in the community that knew about Kevin and were very happy that he was going to court. The small amount of time he was put away was difficult to deal with."
Cooper was supposed to report for his sentence on October 7, 2005 to the Federal Correctional Institute Butner in N.C., but never showed up. A warrant for Kevin Cooper's arrest was issued on November 10, 2005 for failure to appear.
"[A source Kevin spoke to before he left] said that one of the reasons he didn't report was because he didn't want them to change his sexual preference for young boys," stated Sgt. Schafer. "No one knows what Kevin is capable of in the long run. He will continue to hurt young boys until he is caught."
Deputy Russ Fields of the U.S. Marshal Service cautions that Cooper is extremely manipulative and easily evokes sympathy by telling stories of his abuse as a child. Cooper has been known to get money and other assets by manipulating people with these stories.
Police say their latest leads place Cooper somewhere on the West Coast - possibly even in Canada or Mexico. They have information that he has taken up surfing, and is currently traveling with a pet chihuahua.
Officials say it is not a question of 'if' Cooper will abuse another child, it is "when." Deputy Fields said there was a sighting of Cooper in March traveling with a young orphan he picked up off the street.
"My biggest fear is that he is still with that child, and that he is currently abusing boys," says Deputy Fields. "I have no doubt he is." |
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