A 28-year-old Broomall man is facing more than 40 criminal charges after investigators say he used social media to target a Clifton Heights teenager and multiple girls as young as 9, attempting to coax explicit images out of them over more than a year. Kevin D. Truong, who lives on the 2900 block of Dorman Avenue, was jailed after a district justice set his bail at 10 percent of $500,000, and he remained behind bars without having posted that bail.
According to the Delco Times, the case traces back to summer 2024, when the parents of a 13-year-old Clifton Heights girl noticed suspicious messages between their daughter and an unknown user. An unidentified TikTok user had asked the girl to play games with them that year, and she eventually gave the user her Instagram handle. That profile then tried to obtain intimate photos from her; she blocked the account, but the person allegedly created new accounts to keep contacting her, prompting her to threaten to call police, per the outlet's report.
A December Instagram Message and a Forensic Trail
The harassment escalated in December 2024, the outlet reports, when the teen received an Instagram request from an account called nickcosta_010 that asked her to show parts of her body, which she did. Clifton Heights police received a report of online solicitation of a minor and submitted the teen's phone for forensic examination on Feb. 11, 2025. That analysis linked the seized messages back to the teen, and Delaware County investigators say they ultimately found a lengthy chat history between Truong and the girl in which he attempted to obtain explicit pictures from her.
The case widened when a local detective investigation received another complaint involving Truong, the Delco Times reports — this one involving a TikTok user who allegedly tried to follow and communicate with girls as young as 9. One 9-year-old victim provided a screenshot of a profile linked to Truong's email address, and investigators allege Truong asked her to point her phone camera at parts of her body.
Indiana Police Flag Tipped Off Delaware County
Indiana police requested help from Delaware County authorities in August 2025 to obtain a search warrant for Truong's Broomall home, according to the paper's account. That warrant was served on Oct. 16, 2025, when detectives seized two phones and a laptop. Forensic analysis tied the seized messages to the Clifton Heights teen, and photos from her were reportedly found on a device backup.
Despite two separate investigations and the seizure of his devices, Truong continued to access social media, according to the criminal complaint cited by the Delco Times. That led to a second search warrant carried out at his Broomall home on Oct. 1 — just two days before charges were announced. Det. Lisa DeMartini filed the criminal complaint, which states that additional victims may still be identified as the investigation continues. The complaint also quotes Truong telling investigators, “I'm sick.”
Charges and What Comes Next
Truong is charged with unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors, directing obscene performance, obscene sexual materials and criminal solicitation of photos using a computer, among more than 40 total counts. Under Pennsylvania's unlawful-contact statute, contacting a minor — defined as anyone under 18 — to engage in a prohibited sexual offense is itself a crime, and the law explicitly covers communication made through electronic systems, computers or other telecommunications devices, according to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. That charge is graded at the same severity as the most serious underlying offense involved. Separately, the state's corruption-of-minors law treats conduct that violates the state's sexual-offense statutes as a third-degree felony, per the same statutory code.
District Justice Cullen Grimes set Truong's bail, and he was taken to Delaware County Prison, where he had not posted it as of the charges being filed. District Justice Andrew Goldberg is scheduled to preside over a preliminary hearing on Oct. 15. The evidence reviewed does not establish how that hearing will resolve or what, if any, plea Truong intends to enter.
Part of a Broader Pattern Across the Region
Truong's arrest comes amid a string of similar cases reported across the Philadelphia area in recent days. Police allege a 27-year-old Bensalem man sexually pursued at least a half dozen children online, some as young as 10, exchanging nude pictures with them, according to phillyBurbs. A Bucks County man was separately arrested after allegedly sending explicit photos to children and having sex with a child in New Jersey, as reported by NBC10 Philadelphia. In western Pennsylvania, a 43-year-old Indiana County man was charged with felony counts of disseminating and possessing child sexual abuse material and unlawful use of a communications facility, according to WPXI.
Federal data underscores how quickly these cases can develop. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has noted that online enticement and grooming periods can be extremely brief, with some victims reporting they were asked to send explicit images after chatting with an offender for under an hour — and law enforcement has documented grooming periods as short as 19 seconds. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has reported receiving 1.4 million reports of online enticement in 2025, though the evidence reviewed does not establish whether that figure uses reporting methods directly comparable to the Truong investigation.
