Mother from Provo charged with 44 crimes in the form of child sex crimes

PROVO, Utah (ABC4) — A Provo mother was charged Monday with 44 counts of child sex crimes involving her 10-year-old daughter, court documents show.

Court documents show the mother was charged in Fourth District Court with:

• Sixteen counts of child trafficking.
• Sixteen charges of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor.
• Eight charges of serious sexual abuse of a child.
• One count of sodomy of a child.
• One case of object rape of a child.
• One charge of rape of a child.
• One charge of indecent assault on a child.

ABC4.com is declining to release the mother’s name in an effort to protect the victim’s identity. Police say the mother filmed her daughter and uploaded sexually explicit videos to the messaging platform Kik. She was arrested last week after Provo City Police were tipped off about the alleged abuse.

A man was also arrested in Nevada as part of the investigation. Chris Seamann, 52, of Mesquite, Nev. was arrested last Friday morning on a Utah warrant for his alleged involvement.

Seamann is a convicted sex offender, according to the National Sex Offender Registry. He was convicted in 1993 in Nebraska of first-degree forcible sexual assault.

The mother reportedly told police that she liked to use Kik for adult purposes and talked about men she spoke to, including Seamann. The mother stated that she was looking for attention from “someone who wasn’t bullying.” She also told police that she and her daughter had met Seamann on multiple occasions.

The mother and Seamann allegedly exchanged money several times, with the man paying $20 “per session.” During the Springville incident, Seamann allegedly gave the mother a laptop and $125 in payment, the probable cause affidavit said.

The mother told police that she allegedly did this multiple times over a period of 5-6 years. Police reportedly asked the mother when the victim had last been abused by the man, and she described in graphic detail an incident that occurred in Springville on September 3.

The mother was taken to the Utah County Jail, where she is being held without bail. Seamann is currently being held in Nevada pending possible extradition to Utah.

The Utah Attorney General released a statement commending Utah’s ICAC task force.

“While such betrayals seem incomprehensible to most of us, the tragic reality of human trafficking and child exploitation is that family members, including parents, can be the most serious perpetrators,” said Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes.

Reyes said he is grateful to all the investigators involved in these types of cases.

“The Utah ICAC Task Force, led by Commander Sete Aulai, is comprised of more than 200 expert investigators from our office and affiliated agencies across the state. I am inspired by the courage and resilience of survivors, as domestic violence cases are extremely difficult to investigate,” he said.