WCSO arrest man on multiple counts of child pornography

On January 2, 2022, Detectives with the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division arrested Marc LaChapelle, 65 years of age, for 25 counts of possession of computer child pornography. The arrest of LaChapelle was the culmination of a months-long investigation by Detectives with the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office, which began from a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

In July 2022, Criminal Investigations Division Detectives assigned to the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force began an investigation into the possession and transmission of child pornography originating from a residence in Wakulla County. On September 23, 2022, a search warrant was executed at the residence of Marc LaChapelle by Detectives with the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division, along with Special Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, as well as an electronic scent detection canine from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Marc LaChapelle was present during the execution of this search warrant. During the search, numerous electronic devices (laptops, computers, cell phones, storage devices, etc.) were seized for future off-site forensic extraction and analysis by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Crime Lab. The results of the forensic search were later returned to the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division for examination. During this examination, Detectives recovered over 25 images of child pornography from a computer seized from Marc LaChapelle’s residence.