Accused pedophiles were known to the community, a source says

FORT WAYNE, Ind. --The details are cringe-worthy. The charges, together with the online mugshots, bring on nightmarish images.

Men engaging in sex with minors makes people angry and outraged.

Charles McDaniel

So why did Dylan Kieres, 33, turn up at police headquarters on May 21 to turn himself in as one of two men who sexually molested and filmed their encounters with a 14-year-old boy?

The net was closing in, according to a source close to the criminal investigation. 

In December, a tip came into Fort Wayne Police Department identifying Charles McDaniel, 43, as a pedophile. McDaniel was described as Kieres’ roommate and co-criminal in a Fort Wayne Police Department news release issued Wednesday.

It was Kieres who contacted police with his confession, the release stated. Detective John Chambers of the Fort Wayne Police Department was assigned to the case. Chambers has been a detective with the Crimes Against Persons unit for years.

Wednesday, FWPD revealed that Kieres was charged with sexual misconduct with a minor, a Level 4 felony; child pornography possession, Level 5; and, manufacturing child pornography, Level 5.

McDaniel who apparently ordered Kieres to film sex acts with the 14-year-old, was charged with three counts of sexual misconduct with a minor, Level 4 felony; rape, level 3; child pornography possession, Level 5, manufacturing child pornography, Level 5, vicarious sexual gratification, Level 5 and child solicitation, Level 4.

Dylan Kieres

When Chambers set out to investigate, he didn’t have the name of the victim, but eventually found him and set up an interview at the Dr. Bill Lewis Center for Children.

The victim said the two men “had sex with him on more than one occasion,” the release stated, and other times alone with McDaniel.

According to one of Kieres’ victims who Wednesday spoke to The Probable Cause, both men solicit boys around the age of 14.

The source, now 20, said he first met Kieres at a Pride event downtown. He was 14 and wanted to meet people and become part of a community where he’d feel safe and wanted.

To his young eyes, Kieres appeared to be around the same age as he was. The source said Kieres was “awkward.” 

They left the main Pride event and had sex “at the tree line.” The source, who spoke to The Probable Cause as he sat with a counselor, provided this information willingly, as he seeks justice for other victims in this case, he said.

The source said he met Kieres again for sex, thinking that this was “how people connect.”

But after a while, Kieres gave him “the heebie jeebies” and the encounters “didn’t feel normal.”

“He always wanted to have sex again, but that didn’t happen, the source said. When he recently met him again, Kieres evidently told him how “hot” he was, meaning attractive, even though he’d aged out of the preferred age bracket.

The source also met McDaniel who “terrified him.” 

At that time, the source was friends with McDaniel’s partner, a man around 19 or 20, but he looked younger. 

McDaniel allowed him to stay in his trailer located on a street off Wayne Trace because the young man “didn’t want to live at home with his family,” the source said.

McDaniel and the partner were living together and McDaniel was supporting him financially, working at a McDonald’s fast food restaurant, the source said.

Both Kieres and McDaniel attempted to join a gay online community group chat - usually a safe place where gay adults get to know each other - and they “were removed from the group for suspected pedophilia,” the source said.

The source said that McDaniel was admitted into the group, but removed the same day “because he made people uncomfortable. It really seemed like he liked them young and was removed after an hour.”

“My whole community knew about Charles and was adamant that he’d be caught,” the source said. “We do not tolerate having any minors whatsoever.”

The source said he believed if Kieres had more confidence, or a little more “gusto” he "could have been just as bad as Charles." But he is an awkward and nervous person.

McDaniel has been at the Allen County Jail since May 15 when he was taken into custody for invasion of privacy, according to the Allen County Sheriff's website.

Online court documents don’t indicate when McDaniel will have his initial hearing on his new charges, but he is being held without bail or a “no bond.”

Kieres, on the other hand, is being held in lieu of $30,000 bail, which normally means he’d have to fork over $3,000 or one tenth of the amount.

The source, however, believes Kieres is unemployed and has been unemployed.

The source said because of his experiences with Kieres he’s still trying to figure out what a healthy relationship is.

“I got robbed of a lot of myself and it made it very hard to live in my own head,” he said. He feels that so many people don’t “adjust” like he does, even though he found himself suicidal at times.

He is lucky he has supportive parents and he tells his mother everything, he said.