A 23-year-old Arkansas man is now behind bars in Craven County after being extradited to North Carolina to face child sexual exploitation charges, and he's also wanted in Indianapolis in connection with a case involving a 2-year-old girl. Tyler Paul Hutcheson of Harrison, Arkansas, is being held without bond at the Craven County Sheriff's Office confinement facility, accused of soliciting explicit content from a minor he allegedly met on TikTok.
According to WCTI, the Craven County Sheriff's Office opened its investigation after receiving a report involving the sexual exploitation of a child and a person the child had met on TikTok. The sheriff's office Internet Crimes Against Children task force identified Hutcheson as a suspect, and investigators consulted with the district attorney's office before a magistrate issued warrants against him. U.S. Marshals took Hutcheson into custody in Arkansas, and he was served with the outstanding warrants and extradited to North Carolina on Tuesday, per the same report.
Hutcheson now faces three felony counts in Craven County: first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, and indecent liberties with a minor. Under North Carolina law, first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor is a Class C felony carrying up to 231 months in prison and mandatory lifetime sex offender registration, as detailed by North Carolina General Statute § 14-190.16. The second-degree count, a Class E felony under North Carolina General Statute § 14-190.17, targets the distribution, receipt, or solicitation of visual media depicting a minor in sexual activity, while the indecent liberties charge, a Class F felony under North Carolina General Statute § 14-202.1, applies when an offender at least five years older than the child engages in the conduct and carries up to 59 months in prison — a statute that does not require physical contact to apply.
A Separate Trail Leads to Indianapolis
The case takes another dark turn hundreds of miles away. The sheriff's report notes that the Indiana case involves Haylee Schmidt of Indianapolis, who admitted to creating multiple videos documenting the molestation of a 2-year-old at Hutcheson's request, according to the sheriff's office account relayed by WCTI. Schmidt reportedly made the videos in exchange for $25.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department detectives separately connected Hutcheson to the case by matching his June 30 booking photo from Boone County, Arkansas, to selfie images sent from an Instagram account that paid Schmidt for the videos, according to WTHR. Investigators also identified the Venmo account Tyler-Hutcheson-12 as tied to Hutcheson, per the station's reporting. As a result, per WCTI, Hutcheson is wanted in Indiana on two counts each of child molesting, rape, and child exploitation.
Craven County's Ongoing Push Against Online Predators
This isn't an isolated case for Craven County's Internet Crimes Against Children unit, which under Sheriff Chip Hughes has made multiple arrests this year targeting online predators, including a 20-year-old Kinston man in May accused of Snapchat solicitation of more than a dozen minors and a 19-year-old New Bern man in June accused of Snapchat-based sextortion, as Neuse News reported. Hoodline has covered the sextortion case as well as a Havelock fugitive case and an indecent liberties case in Dover tied to the same task force's efforts this summer.
The Hutcheson case also fits a broader national pattern. Reports of online enticement submitted to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline surged 158% in 2025 to more than 1.4 million cases nationwide, according to MissingKids.org. The organization also logged more than 50,000 reports of financially motivated sextortion targeting minors in 2025.
Marshals, Extradition, and What Comes Next
Hutcheson's cross-country capture reflects a wider enforcement effort. U.S. Marshals Service-led task forces apprehended more than 73,000 federal, state, and local fugitives nationwide in 2025, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. For now, Hutcheson remains held without bond in Craven County to answer the North Carolina charges, even as the Indiana warrants remain outstanding. The supplied reports do not state which jurisdiction will proceed against him first.
In its statement on the case, the Craven County Sheriff's Office urged parents and guardians to talk with their children about the risks tied to social media and online gaming, noting that multiplayer games are among the online spaces where children may encounter strangers. The office also identified Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok as platforms where such encounters can occur, and encouraged parents to stay involved in their children's online activity and routinely check their accounts.
