A 71-year-old man from Skagit County, Alan Lewis Meirhofer, has been indicted for the alleged receipt and possession of images depicting child sexual abuse. Meirhofer, a former McNeil Island Special Commitment Center resident, was arrested following an incident in which a teenage boy discovered alarming content on a phone borrowed from Meirhofer. This led to the boy's mother alerting the authorities.

The criminal complaint against Meirhofer outlines accusations of him providing various "gifts" like food, clothing, alcohol, cash, and marijuana to teen boys in the area, supposedly to win their trust. It was during one of these interactions that the teen came to suddenly and disturbingly find images of child sexual abuse on Meirhofer's phone. As a result of these findings, Meirhofer was taken into custody in March 2021, and his electronic devices were seized for further investigation.

The FBI, collaborating with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), disclosed that over a dozen instances of child sexual abuse imagery were linked to internet accounts controlled by Meirhofer. Following these discoveries, on July 17, the authorities took Meirhofer into federal custody, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Given Meirhofer's troubling history - including convictions for burglary, kidnapping, and rape in 1988, followed by further convictions in 1990, his potential penalties are now considerably more severe. Released in 2017 as a level 3 registered sex offender, an indicator of the highest risk to possibly re-offend, Meirhofer could face a statutory minimum of 15 years to a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted of the current charges. It's crucial to mention that the indictment contains only allegations, and Meirhofer remains innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt within the confines of the law.