Polaroids hidden in the walls of a California home for decades have led to a father and son being sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
The gruesome photos, taken between 1985 and 1995, showed children under the age of 14 being sexually abused by Theodore Smith, now 90, and his son, James Smith, 66. This was reported by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
They were finally discovered in 2021, when a new homeowner renovated an outbuilding on their Orangevale estate — where the Smiths had lived for more than 40 years before moving to Texas.
“They were self-taken photos and I could tell the content wasn’t something I needed to be involved in at all,” says the new homeowner told KCRA at the time.
“The first call I made was to the sheriff’s department.”
Detectives were then able to track down the children in the photos. The victims, now adults, “never told anyone about the abuse other than their spouses,” the prosecutor’s office said.
They were all under the age of five when the abuse began “and it lasted most of their first decade of life,” the report continued.
After the Smiths were identified as people of interest, their new home in rural Alto, Texas, was searched. Authorities say they discovered more child sexual abuse material there.
Theodore Smith, now 90, and his son, James Smith, 66, received long prison sentences after the person who bought their California discovered Polaroids showing children being sexually abused
Unfortunately, the statute of limitations for crimes committed before 1988 had expired, but prosecutors said there was enough evidence from after that year to pursue criminal charges.
The father and son were then taken into custody in October 2021, when authorities found James in a vehicle en route to California.
There were even more child sexual abuse materials in his possession at the time, the district attorney’s office said.
It remains unclear how many children were abused by the Smiths and how the father and son knew the children.
But they admitted in court that they were in a position of trust, and admitted that their crimes required planning and sophistication.
Theodore, 90, subsequently pleaded guilty to 11 counts of committing indecent acts against a child and three counts of indecent acts against a child and was sentenced to 100 years behind bars at the Sacramento County Main Jail.
James also pleaded no contest to two counts of committing lewd acts against a child, and was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center.