A Portland, Oregon man was sentenced to serve 20 years in a federal prison for committing sex crimes against children – thanks in large part to the efforts of Centre Police Department Investigator Randy Mayorga.
It was last year that Mayorga was contacted by the Portland Oregon Police Bureau, and he, in turn, contacted the mother of a 12 year old autistic girl in Centre, where he was informed of a situation where the victim had been in phone contact with an adult male; one who had sent the child inappropriate material through social media – and had convinced the child to respond in kind.
According to Centre Police Chief Kirk Blankenship, Mayorga began researching the case and gathered evidence and he eventually tracked down all of the information necessary to bring charges against then-52 year old Randy Shefstad.
He was eventually indicted on 31 charges of sex crimes involving four minors between the ages of ten and twelve. All had intellectual disabilities and were autistic. The victims were in four different states – all outside of Oregon. Reportedly, as far back as 2006 Shefstad had been caught using the computer at a public library to view obscene material.
May 21st of this year (2019) Shefstad pled guilty to one count of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct, to two counts of attempting to use a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct and three counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree.
The investigation started on October 10th of 2017 when the parents of one of the victims in Texas discovered sexually explicit content on their child’s cell phone. The parents reported that information to law enforcement in Texas.
Once it was discovered that this case had an Oregon connection, law enforcement officials in Texas utilized the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program to contact the Portland Oregon Police Bureau and it’s Child Abuse Team, the same agency that would later work with Investigator Mayorga in Centre.
Upon his release, Shefstad could be extradited to Cherokee County to face charges here.