A southeast Iowa man is facing a felony child sexual exploitation charge after a cyber tip led investigators to a file he allegedly uploaded to a messaging application.
Bryce Willis, 31, of Mount Pleasant has been charged with Sexual Exploitation of a Minor — Promote Film, a Class C Felony. The alleged incident occurred around January 1st, 2025.
According to court documents, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip from the messaging application Kik in June 2025 regarding the upload of apparent child sexual abuse material. The tip was assigned to Mount Pleasant Police Chief Lyle Murray, who serves as a liaison officer for the Internet Crimes Against Children task force.
Murray reviewed the uploaded file, which he described in court documents as a video approximately 30 seconds in length depicting a young girl who appeared to be between 8 and 10 years old.
Investigators traced the IP address used to upload the file to a Mediacom account registered to Willis at a Mount Pleasant address. The email address associated with the Kik account was also found to match one connected to Willis and partially contained his date of birth. Murray noted in court documents that when a file has been uploaded through Kik, that indicates it has been shared with someone.
Willis has waived his initial appearance and preliminary hearing. He is being held on a $10,000 cash or surety bond with a promise to appear scheduled for September 4th.
