A 33-year-old West Sacramento man is behind bars after Yolo County Sheriff's detectives say they uncovered evidence he spent years communicating with minors online, encouraging children under 12 to create sexually explicit material, and investigators now believe there could be more victims they haven't yet identified.
Alexander Chad Lyons was arrested Thursday, October 1, after detectives served a search warrant and found child sexual abuse material along with evidence that he allegedly communicated with minors online over several years, according to CBS Sacramento. Investigators said some of the minors identified in the case live outside California, and they believe additional victims have not yet come forward.
Detectives are now asking anyone who communicated with Lyons while they were underage, or anyone who knows someone who did, to contact the Yolo County Sheriff's Office. The outlet's report notes investigators are especially interested in communications that took place through Discord, Omegle, or other messaging and video chat platforms, as well as anything tied to the username animus517.
Why Investigators Are Zeroing In On Omegle
The specific mention of Omegle is notable given the platform's troubled history. The random video chat service permanently shut down in November 2023 after 14 years in operation, following a wave of lawsuits alleging it facilitated the sexual abuse and exploitation of minors, as reported by CBS News. That means any Omegle-related evidence in this case would predate the platform's closure, pointing to a pattern of alleged conduct stretching back years.
Discord, meanwhile, has described its own safeguards against this kind of abuse. In transparency reporting submitted to the U.S. Senate, the company said it uses PhotoDNA hash-matching and machine learning tools to proactively scan for known child sexual abuse material, automatically banning violators and reporting them to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, according to Discord.
A National Surge in Reported Cases
Cases like this one are landing on local detectives' desks more often. NCMEC received 20.5 million reports of suspected child sexual abuse material and exploitation in 2024, containing nearly 63 million individual digital files, per Thorn. Reports of online enticement specifically surged by 158 percent between 2024 and 2025, according to data compiled by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
A federal law known as the REPORT Act, enacted in 2024, expanded mandatory reporting obligations for electronic service providers beyond child sexual abuse material to include online enticement and child sex trafficking, contributing to a 55 percent increase in reported trafficking cases that year, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has said. Of the tips that flow into the national clearinghouse, more than 53,000 in 2025 were escalated as involving children in imminent danger or requiring urgent law enforcement intervention.
What Lyons Could Face Under California Law
Under California Penal Code Section 311.4, coercing or persuading a minor to participate in creating explicit material is addressed by the statute, according to legal analysis from the Law Offices of Jeff Voll. Separately, PC 311.11 addresses storing or supervising child sexual abuse material. It remains an open question whether the Yolo County District Attorney's Office has filed formal charges against Lyons or what bail, if any, has been set.
Sheriff's Office Asks Public for Help
Yolo County Sheriff's detectives investigated this case in West Sacramento. Investigators are asking anyone with information relevant to the case, including anyone who had contact with Lyons or the username animus517 while underage, to call the Sheriff's Office.
