Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Kids on Kik: Kidnappings, killings linked to teen chat app

Episode Date: March 21, 2017

An alarming number of kidnappings, rapes and murders have been linked to messaging applications that can easily be downloaded onto smartphones for free by pre-teens and teens. Police are warning about one especially popular mobile chat app called Kik, which the creator claims is used by 40% of US teens. Nancy Grace and Alan Duke explore the dangers in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. It all started with a conversation on the messaging app, Kik. A 15-year-old girl from Macomb Township arranged to meet with a 31-year-old man. A man she met turned out to be a convicted sex offender. He raped her in his car. She managed to get away. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A 16-year-old from Allegan County is missing and considered in danger after meeting someone on the messaging app Kik. They say 16-year-old Joy Martin left her home in Saugatuck Saturday night.

They say she might have taken a Greyhound bus out of state. If you have a teenager, there's a good chance they use it. According to its maker, 40% of all teenagers are on Kik. One potentially dangerous aspect of Kik, it is completely anonymous. You have no way of knowing who you're speaking with. No matter where you go, everybody you see has their cell phone either stuck to their ear or they're walking around staring at it or their iPad or their device. that the Kik app is leading to not only kidnaps, disappearances, but worse. The Kik app. K-I-K. Police believe a missing girl is in danger now

after she spoke with someone on the messaging app and left home. I'm talking about Joy Dean Martin of Sagatuck. She leaves her home and we believe at this hour boarded a Greyhound bus to travel out of the state after she chats with a person on the Kik app and this is according to Michigan State Police. She is now considered an endangered child and a desperate search has ensued. She's a little over five feet. Police say she has blonde hair. Anyone with info on her whereabouts, I'm talking about Joy Dean Martin, please call 911 or state police at 269-792-2213. And this is the tip of the iceberg. I'm Nancy Grace.

This is Crime Stories. And right now, we're talking about the messaging app Kik. K-I-K. It's been around, but now it seems to be leading to more and more disappearances, missing children, and related to other crimes. With me right now, investigative reporter Alan Duke. Alan, what do you know? Kika is just the latest in a series of these apps that are increasingly adopted by teenagers, and in fact, people younger than that, the pre-teens. It loads onto an iPhone or your Android phone. It basically creates your own internet world.

Remember the old AOL? I know, you've got mail. We had that back in the 90s, where it was sort of a walled community. You had the chat rooms, you had the games, and you had various things like that. We thought of that as the internet. Well, now what Kik has done is they've taken all of these apps that they target at young people, and they've created that kind of world on steroids for them. The scary thing about it is similar to what AOL was for us back in the day, is there's anonymity. It has become sort of a, let's say a killing field for bad predators because of the anonymity. As I said earlier, Alan, Kik has been around for a while, but now authorities are focusing more and more on it as a tool for predators. I mean, it's reared its ugly head on several occasions. Do you recall the little girl that was

approached by two Virginia Tech students? She was murdered. Not only that, the whole thing started because the little girl had began a relationship with a grown man that was a Virginia Tech star. As I recall, he was an engineering student, played sports, and he had targeted this little 12 or 13-year-old girl on Kik. That's how the whole thing happened. Then federal authorities and parents began scrutinizing the Kik messaging app after the murder of this little Virginia girl. And they still, to this day, as its head of her trial, believe she met her killer via this anonymous chat system. Recall they arrested the two Virginia Tech students in connection with the death of the little girl, Nicole Lovell.

I remember her name very well. Her body was found three days after she left her home one cold evening on January 27, because she thought this Virginia Tech student was going to marry her and brag to her little friends they were going to have a family. All this went down on kick, K-I-K. Remember that case, Alan? She was using one of the aspects, allegedly using the flirt aspect. There are several of these applications within the application, internal apps. One is called flirt, and that's with an exclamation point. It allows you to see a list of users who are supposedly in your age range so that you can flirt with. And there's another one called Match and Chat, which is basically a Tinder for kick.

And 40% of the teenagers, according to the company, about 40% of the teenage population uses this. Now, you've got to be 13 in order to download it, according to their rules. But who follows those anymore? Oh, please. My little boy, as of now, he asks me to download things. I still have held out he doesn't have my Apple iTunes password, and he doesn't have my Amazon password. He'll call a Russian and he'll hack it, believe me. Hey, he doesn't need a Russian.

He can do it himself. He goes wild over it. My daughter, not interested at all. She'd rather have her nose in a traditional book, an actual book, not a Kindle book, a real book. Not John David. Uh-uh. So why do teens, preteens, love KIT? Well, it offers almost no effective parental monitoring, and it lacks controls to

prevent children from using it. Messages cannot be automatically duplicated or mirrored in another device. And not only that, it turns out only the authorized user has access. And what that means is there's no way for a parent to see the message exchanges without getting the password from the child. Now, while the app, as you just pointed out, accurately claims it's limited to 13 or older. There is no age verification. Users only have to give an email address and they can pick whatever birthday they want to. Doesn't matter. Now the company says it uses typical industry standards for age verification. I don't like it. It's just, it's like the wild, wild west. There's no control on it, Alan. And 13 is still too young. It's not just kick. The situation with Elizabeth Thomas in

Tennessee and went off with her teacher, somebody she knew and her family knew, that's dangerous enough. But these are totally anonymous people. And it's got these matching applications on. Let's say that there is a predator and they're wanting to find somebody of age 13 in a certain area. They just got to go in there and punch a few buttons and they get a whole list of them and their immediate contact with them and they can start flirting with them and grooming them pretty soon. These kids are on a greyhound bus going to nowhere. Another thing, unlike a lot of phone-based messaging apps, Kik does not require a phone number, just a user-selected name. You don't even have to put a phone number in. You don't even have to have a phone to

do it. Like my children have iPads. That darn Santa gave them to them at Christmas. I don't know what he was thinking. If I had anything to do with what Santa brought, they would not have gotten iPads. I can tell you that much. At least that's what I tell the children. But now I find out they can get on Kik from their iPad. They don't have a cell phone, but they can still get on this app, this Kik app. What about that? Did you know that, Alan? Yeah.

This is just a sign of things to come. No, you didn't. I just taught you something brand new. You did not know. I can just tell the way you answered. You didn't know that it's not phone-based. You know, it makes sense that it wouldn't be. I can tell.

Why don't you go ahead and break down and tell the truth? You did not know. You don't need a phone. I never thought about it, and you're right, Nancy. You taught me something technical. See, I've so busted you, and I'm not even in the room with you. I can tell. I can tell in your voice you were lying.

I want to know everything. Okay, now. Now, you know, that's not the only. I've already listed two. Two crimes related to kick. And that's not all. That's not all of them. No.

There was the teenager in Macomb Township, Michigan. I don't think you've mentioned that one. Macomb County Sheriff's Office says that a 15-year-old girl started chatting with a man on kick. She arranged to meet him. We know his name is Nicholas Scott Reynolds in the area of 21 Mile and Romeo Plank Road. She later, she survived this, told investigators that when she showed up, it was a 31-year-old man and he raped her in his car. She escaped and they finally did identify the attacker as Reynolds. He was a registered sex offender. There is now another story of an

11-year-old girl who got on the phone app, Kik, and the stranger she was talking to convinced her to meet. And the mom says, quote, I just feel like I'm hurting more than her now because my daughter has been put into a situation. I feel like there was nothing I could do to protect her. Now, that is the Detroit mom. She does not want to be identified. The other person on the other end posed as a teen and prayed on her 11-year-old daughter, got her to take her clothes off and do sex acts and record it. The mom had no idea what was going on, and it all was connected on Kik, K-I-K. Right now, my thoughts are on this little girl that we believe got on a Greyhound bus after talking with, clearly, an unknown male on Kik.

Now she's considered in danger, and there is a desperate search for her. I'm really distraught about it. She may have the best parents in the world, but they had no idea what was going on. Alan, before I give her information again, I want to thank CrimeCon for sponsoring our podcast today so we can tell parents out there about KIK. K-I-K. And I keep spelling it every time because it's not the traditional spelling of the word, the verb KIK. CrimeCon is when all amateur and professional crime sleuths and crime fighters join together for the first time.

I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. Alan is going to be there. We're going to be podcasting live and want you to join in with us. It's in Indianapolis. Alan, tell them the rest. Crime Con is June 9th through Sunday, June 11th at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis. Roster of speakers and experts include Aphphrodite jones from investigation discovery cheryl mccullum from the cold case investigative research institute and i'm looking forward to

hanging out with pain lindsey from the up and vanish podcast register with the code nancy and you'll save 20 off whatever package you choose learn about the weekend and see all of the guests at CrimeCon.com. Don't forget to use the code Nancy for 20% off. Guys, I'll see you at CrimeCon. I'm really looking forward to that. Now, back to this missing girl. Before I go back to Joy Martin, there is the other incident that you just reminded me of, Alan. John Cruz.

Tell me about it, about the three little boys. This is a 31-year-old teacher. He was a debate coach at Bronx Science High School in New York. It was a year ago he was arrested after he allegedly persuaded three teenage boys to send him nude photos in exchange for gift cards. He's been charged now with possessing, receiving, and producing child pornography. So this is just a predator's field day out here on these apps. Kick is only the latest.

It's so upsetting. It is so upsetting. Because say you carry on a conversation with this person for a year, six months. You feel like you know them. And then when you meet them, they're not who they said they were. And it's too late right now the search going on for a teen girl joy martin from sagatuck left home after messaging an unknown person on the kick messenger app if you have any information, please call 911 or the local police. She has blonde hair and blue eyes.

She has a diamond stud. Last seen, we think, there in Sagatuck, and we believe she may be traveling by Greyhound bus right now. Joy Martin, a beautiful little girl, missing. For all of you parents out there, beware. Be on the lookout. Let's do what we can to protect our children. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.