FBI arrests sex-crime suspect

By Jerry Sena

jtsena@wataugademocrat.com

Editor’s Note: The following report may contain material unsuitable for children.

Federal, state and local law enforcement officers arrested a Wake County man last week after, they say, he traveled to Boone to have sex with a woman and her 10-year-old daughter.

The woman and daughter were fictional characters created by FBI investigators looking to detect Internet predators in a Yahoo chat room.

Frederick Stephen Klee, 41, of Holly Springs, located just south of Raleigh, was indicted Sept. 29 by a federal Grand Jury on a charge alleging he tried to persuade a person he believed to be under the age of 18 to engage in sexual activity.

A criminal complaint filed in federal court Sept. 25, the day officers arrested Klee, claims he drove the three-and-a-half hours from Holly Springs to Boone to meet the woman and her daughter at the Chick-Fil-A on Blowing Rock Road.

The document says Klee checked into the Marriott Fairfield Inn, located just behind the restaurant, around 7:30 a.m.

In his communications with the undercover agent posing as the woman and her daughter, Klee allegedly arranged to meet the two at the Chick-Fil-A at 9 a.m. While chatting with the “daughter,” he said they were “going to the hotel after we have breakfast...provided that everyone feels comfortable.”

Unknown to Klee, agents with the FBI and N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, as well as officers with the Boone Police Department, were watching the hotel and restaurant.

Agents reportedly saw Klee leave the hotel parking lot just after 9 a.m. and drive to the nearby restaurant. FBI special agent Corey Harris said he saw Klee enter the drive-through lane and that he appeared to be looking into the restaurant as he drove past.

A few minutes later, he was arrested. This was not the first time the FBI had targeted Klee as a suspect in an Internet predator case, according to the complaint.

In July 2005, investigators said Klee was allegedly involved in another Internet chat with an undercover agent in Cleveland, Ohio.

In that case, Klee allegedly expressed interest in traveling to an undisclosed location to have sex with a minor.

Agents made the connection after searching an FBI database for his screen name, “seriouswoody.” In that investigation, agents were able to identify the screen name as that of Frederick Stephen Klee, of 801 Bonhurst Dr., in Holly Springs.

To confirm they were communicating with the same man in the current investigation, agents compared Klee’s driver’s license photo to a photo he’d posted in his Yahoo profile. The photos matched.

The most recent events leading to Klee’s arrest began a little more than a month ago. On Aug. 31, an undercover officer encountered Klee, who was using his screen name, while monitoring a Yahoo chat room titled “Fetishes:14.”

The officer, who had monitored the chat room in the past, said the forum was targeted at people with an “interest in incest.”

The complaint states that Klee initiated the contact with the male officer, who was posing as a single mother with a 10-year-old daughter.

A short time later, the two began an instant message exchange. Instant Messages, or IMs, occur more or less in real time as participants type out messages and send them instantly.

“Klee immediately began chatting with a sexual tone,” reads the complaint, “stating, ‘daddy likes VERY little girls.’”

Klee then went on to make explicit comments describing sexual acts between him and the child and discussing with the mother the types of sexual devices he should bring.

According to the complaint, Klee continued to chat with the undercover officer for several weeks. He described himself as an employee in the finance industry in Raleigh. He also said he was married with two daughters, ages 9 and 12.

Calls to Klee’s home Wednesday were not answered.

Bonhurst Drive, where Klee lives, is an idyllic neighborhood of upper-middle class homes in Holly Springs, a picturesque though rapidly growing suburb of Raleigh.

Neighbors contacted for this story expressed shock at Klee’s arrest but declined to be quoted.