Bucks County man faces more charges in child-porn case after other victims are identified, DA says
Mark Wills coerced eight underage girls into sending him nude videos by pretending to be a teenage boy on social media, prosecutors said/.
A Bucks County man who fled to West Virginia earlier this year as detectives investigated child pornography he allegedly coaxed underage girls to create was charged with additional crimes Wednesday after prosecutors said they had identified more victims.
Mark Wills, 60, was arrested in February for allegedly posing as a teenage boy online and soliciting four girls to send him nude photos and videos over the course of a year, starting in January 2024, according to court filings.
During a brief appearance before District Judge Daniel Baranoski on Wednesday — during which Wills waived his preliminary hearing — Chief Deputy District Attorney Kristin McElroy said her office had identified four additional girls Wills allegedly had contact with, bringing the total number of victims in the case to eight.
Wills’ attorney, Colin Hueston, did not comment after the hearing.
County detectives began investigating Wills in December after receiving tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Wills’ arrest.
Accounts on the social media platforms Kik and Snapchat that belonged to Wills were sharing child pornography as early as August, the affidavit said. Both accounts were later traced to an IP address at Wills’ home in Hulmeville.
While searching that home, detectives found child pornography on Wills’ cell phones, computer, and USB drives. Among the evidence on those electronic devices was hours of videos that underage girls had sent to Wills in which he told them to undress and perform sex acts, according to the affidavit.
In communicating with the girls, Wills posed as a teenage boy, and kept a running tally of the various fake identities he used, prosecutors said, including a handwritten list of names, email addresses, and fake dates of birth.
Wills was also using the social media accounts to share the pornography with other people, the affidavit said.
After police searched his home, but before the charges were filed against him, Wills withdrew his life savings and fled to West Virginia.
U.S. marshals arrested him in a mall there in February, sitting alone with little more than a backpack.
Wills is to be arraigned in county court on May 23.