AL - Man raped, videotaped son with other man in interstate child *advertiser censored* ring

"He has the means of travel, family out of state and some of the allegations are there was much travel in the lives of Dunnavant and Herold," Madison County Assistant District Attorney Gabrielle Helix said at a bond hearing Monday. "They held the child captive for eight months and there are no standards, taboos or lines this defendant and his co-defendant hesitated to cross."

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Herold has a computer programming background and runs a popular YouTube channel where he livestreams programming lessons. Prosecutors say his son was not enrolled in school in Huntsville and that they think he was kept in the home without interaction with the outside world.

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Dunnavant was arrested at a family home in Lincoln County, Tenn., Friday investigators said. During a hearing this afternoon seeking to raise Dunnavant's bond from $276,000 cash-only to $1 million cash-only, Huntsville Police Department investigator Chad Smith testified he was contacted by the FBI in early November about the possibility of a child sex victim in Huntsville.

Smith said investigators came across numerous photos depicting sexual torture involving a child. Smith said investigators had an interview with the child, now 9, and he led investigators to his father. Herold spoke to investigators for several hours, Smith said, and implicated Dunnavant.

Smith also testified the child did not attend school in Huntsville and investigators could find no medical records for the child. ......

The cases are expected to be consolidated for prosecution in Madison County.

"There are other potential jurisdictions with defendants, not anywhere near Alabama," Helix said.

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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - State prosecutors say they are "confident and satisfied" that Carl Philip Herold, accused of holding a child captive, sexually torturing him and producing child *advertiser censored* of the torture, will show up for trial after a judge here raised Herold's bond to $1 million cash today.

Herold spoke to reporters outside the district courtroom saying, "I love and miss my son very much" and disputing a police investigator's testimony describing a trip Herold took to Disney World with the boy as at least in part about sex. Herold said the boy stayed with his grandmother during the trip and "turned 9 on Space Mountain.".......

Smith gave no graphic details from the stand but concentrated on evidence that Herold has lived in Huntsville less than nine months, has no ties to the community and has a history of moving around the country. The ability to flee and the possibility of flight are one part of the two-part legal test for higher bond. The other part is whether the defendant is a threat to the community, and Scully-Clemmons said Herold "is a special kind of threat."......

Smith testified that the boy's mother lives in Wyoming. She is separated, at least physically, from Herold, Smith said. Other sources said she "is not in the picture" as far as parenting.

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Herold left Wyoming to come to Huntsville earlier this year. He teaches a series of free interactive online programming classes and tutorials for beginners called, Computer Science for Everyone. His site CarlHProgramming shows he has 14,581 readers. He also has dozens of instructional videos posted on his YouTube channel, Carl Herold, which has nearly 5,000 subscribers.

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