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Editor’s note: This story discusses child sexual abuse material.
A Raleigh woman previously investigated for allegedly sharing sexual material of a dead baby was arrested this week in Boone after an undercover officer connected with her online.
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Kimberli Paulino, 25, was arrested by Boone police Tuesday on six charges of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, court records show. Those charges are the culmination of a months-long investigation by a Boone police officer who serves on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security task force, according to a search warrant.
The officer began chatting in April with a woman later identified as Paulino in an encrypted online chat group commonly used for sharing child sexual abuse material, the warrant states.
Paulino allegedly shared child sexual abuse material on multiple occasions in the chat group, according to the warrant. Law enforcement officers were able to identify her after she shared personally identifying information in the chat, including her birthday and details of a 2-week trip to Japan.
In one series of messages in May, Paulino allegedly wrote to the undercover agent that she was “very into anything depraved and evil,” the search warrant states. She also indicated in messages she planned to become a mother one day in the hopes of producing child sexual abuse material with her own children, according to the warrant.
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But this wasn’t law enforcement’s first encounter with Paulino. After the undercover officer contacted Raleigh police, the officer discovered Paulino had been tied to an October 2020 report of a Twitter account sharing footage of a dead infant being assaulted, according to the search warrant.
But the 2020 investigation was dropped after Paulino’s mother reportedly told police Paulino had left the country, the warrant states. It’s not clear if she actually did.
Paulino’s LinkedIn profile states she worked in various retail and customer service positions in the Raleigh area during that time period after graduating from Knightdale High School in 2019.
Police seized at least eight electronic devices in a search of Paulino’s home Tuesday. She remained jailed without bail as of Friday morning.
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