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A Columbia man who has served as a Boy Scout camp leader is in jail on internet sex crime charges.

On Thursday, The Boone County Sheriff’s Department Cyber Crimes Task Force arrested 22-year-old Ian F. Burow. Burow is charged with two counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child and one count of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Officers said the investigation began in early November 2011 when the Boone County Sheriff’s Department received a complaint from the Boy Scouts of America regarding inappropriate internet conversations on Facebook with minors who were boy scouts. 

Detectives found a Facebook account identified as "Sarah McGee”, from Columbia that  was soliciting minors to take nude photographs of themselves and send those photographs to her through the Internet. Scout officials thought the account was fake and that the actual person making the contact was a male summer camp Boy Scout leader.

Detectives searched the Facebook account including chat conversations.  The chats showed conversations between the account user and numerous underage boys between the ages of 14 and 17.  In the chats, the fake female solicited the minors to take sexually graphic photographs and send those photographs to her by e-mail and cell phone.  

Officers searched the emails account used by the supposed Columbia girl. Officers found numerous sexually graphic photographs of numerous males who are believed to be minors as well as sexually graphic photographs of a girl purporting to be Sarah McGee and believed to have been sent to several of the minors.   

Police said Burow is responsible for all the accounts alleging to be the Columbia girl. The investigation further indicates the suspect has been posing as this female for more than a year.

Investigators believe most of the minors contacted by the suspect were boy scouts who attended scout camps during the past few summers where the suspect served as a scout leader. Police said the suspect has been an adult scout leader for scouts in both Columbia and Hannibal, Missouri. Potential victims have been identified across the state between Sedalia and Hannibal.   

Burow is in the Boone County Jail pending the posting of a $75,000 bond.  

The Cyber Crimes Task Force is asking anyone who has been contacted by or engaged in any Internet conversation with a person purporting themselves to be a female named Sarah McGee of Columbia, Missouri to contact a Task Force investigator at 573-442-4302.   Parents of minor males, especially parents of Boy Scouts, are urged to speak with their boys regarding any contact with someone purporting to be this girl and if their child has had such contact to call a Task Force investigator.