among the hardest to prove

Speaking to nearly 100 students and faculty at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Gary Phillips highlighted the importance of understanding the global child exploitation epidemic and shared his some of his experiences as a sexual predator hunter that briefly touched JonBenet's case back in 2006-

Federal official: It's students' job to know about global sexual exploitation of children
By SARA GIBONEY
04/08/2009

"KEARNEY — “This is where they bled, this is where they cried, this is where they were tortured,” he said.

Gary Phillips, section chief for the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, presented a photo of Michael Pepe’s bed.

Pepe, a retired U.S. Marine Corps captain and founder of a nongovernmental organization in Cambodia, was arrested for violently sexually abusing young girls there. Phillips discussed crime scene investigations, evidence he finds at crime scenes, interviewing victims, giving medical exams to victims of sexual abuse and dealing with emotional abuse. He showed photographs of abused children and crime scenes and shared e-mail messages between sexual predators and himself posing as a procurer of children...

“The hardest thing to do as an investigator is to prove the child crimes,” he said...

Phillips also described the cases of Walter Schirra, a man who was looking for boys and also is the son of Apollo 7 astronaut Wally Schirra; Thomas Lang, a German who was planning a trip to Asia to have sex with 9- to 12-year-old girls; Karl Kaechele, who kept a detailed diary of all the girls he raped; and John Mark Karr, a teacher who falsely confessed to killing 6-year old JonBenet Ramsey..."

mission not impossible

The worst US citizens with even worse intentions are no match for unsung heros--

Chance meeting brings Homeland Security section chief to UNK
By SARA GIBONEY, Hub Staff Writer
04/04/2009

KEARNEY — Diane Kholos Wysocki, sociology professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, was on a flight to Thailand in May 2007 with eight students to study prostitution, family planning and sex trafficking when she met Gary Phillips.

Phillips was returning to Thailand, where he was working to catch U.S. citizens who committed sex crimes against children.

The chance meeting was the beginning of a friendship. Now Phillips, section chief for the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is coming to UNK to discuss his work catching Americans who prey on children in Third World countries. He will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Nebraskan Student Union Ponderosa Room.

“I don’t think people realize — we know kids are abused here, we hear about it, but the fact that grown men leave our country to go there for the purpose of taking advantage of children is amazing,” Wysocki said. “Why do they think it’s OK to do it over there?”...

Phillips, who is employed at the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center in Washington, D.C., has worked as a federal agent for more than 20 years and has served as an undercover investigator in narcotics trafficking, white-collar crimes and crimes against children.

He helped to arrest John Mark Karr, the man who falsely confessed to murdering 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, and Michael Pepe, a retired U.S. Marine Corps captain and teacher who was charged with having sex with teen girls in Cambodia..'