LIBERTY COUNTY – A Pearland man has been arrested and charged after hundreds of photos of him sexually assaulting young girls were found.
Investigators are asking for the public's help to identify victims of accused, 42-year-old Tad Jeremy Costin. Costin is charged with one count of sexual assault of a child. But assistant Harris County D.A. Kathryn Kahle says there are at least 15 unidentified victims. All are young girls between the ages of four and seven years old.
Kahle says the children were photographed having sex with Cotin and that some appeared to have been drugged. She says hundreds of photographs were discovered on an SD card in a box left at the home of the parents of Costin's girlfriend's in Dayton.
"They seemed like a normal family," said Mary Butts, who lives two houses away from where Costin lived with his girlfriend and her 5-year-old son. "My little girl would play with the boy. They would ride bikes."
Butts said she was always careful after a warning she received from a friend last year.
"She had heard rumors that the man, Tad, liked to take pictures of little girls. She let us know that because we have a little girl. That was something that was concerning to me. Ever since then we have been cautious about letting our kids out here," Butts said. "They invited us to a pool party three weeks ago, we declined going but I do know there were many little children at that party."
Butts and other neighbors told Local 2 they noticed some police cars parked at the house last week but didn't know Costin had been arrested.
"It just brings to light how careful you have to be," Butts said. "Even if you know people."
Kahle says a search warrant executed Friday at Costin's current home in the 3900 block of Oak Dale in Pearland. Eight computer hard drives and 80 CDs were confiscated and are now being examined.
Investigators say all of the graphic photographs found so far appear to have been taken at another of Costin's former residences, the 600 block of Derbyshire in Houston.
The Crimes against Children Task Force is taking the lead in the investigation as investigators try to identify the many children in the photographs. Authorities believe the photos date back as far as 1990.
Liberty County officials say that because Costin only lived in the area for two months, there is no evidence that any of the children are from the Liberty County area.
Anyone with information regarding Tad Costin should call the sheriff's office at (936)-336-4500 or Harris County Crime Stoppers at (713)-222-TIPS.