A Schuylkill County man is facing child pornography charges after he contacted law enforcement to report his family’s alleged involvement in a pedophilia ring, inadvertently leading investigators to discover hundreds of illicit files linked to his own accounts, police say.
Matthew Snyder, 32, of Ashland, was taken into custody on Wednesday following the execution of a search warrant at his home by investigators with the state Attorney General’s office. He was arraigned Wednesday morning before Magisterial District Judge Anthony Kilker on 501 felony counts of possessing child sexual abuse material and a single felony count of criminal use of a communication facility. Kilker denied Snyder bail and remanded him to Schuylkill County Prison.
An investigation of Snyder began on Feb. 27 when he reached out to law enforcement, claiming members of his family were involved in what he described as the “loliporn movement,” the AG’s office alleges. Snyder provided his phone number and requested a return call.
When investigators ran that phone number through a law enforcement database on March 2, they allegedly discovered 38 cybertips associated with it. A subsequent review of those tips, which spanned from August to October 2025, revealed more than 600 images and videos of child sexual abuse material uploaded to cloud storage accounts.
Following the execution of search warrants on Snyder’s digital accounts in May, investigators say they located more than 850 videos depicting the sexual assault of infants, toddlers, and prepubescent children.
Police allege the digital search also uncovered screenshots of conversations on the messaging app Telegram, which showed Snyder buying and selling the illicit material in exchange for cryptocurrency and gift cards. In one conversation, Snyder allegedly messaged an unknown user, “and I don’t delete after sale.” Later in the same conversation, Snyder wrote, “I don’t give free video samples But I can give you a screen record Of my videos.”
During the June 24 search of his residence, Snyder waived his Miranda rights and admitted to using his accounts to send and receive the material, telling investigators he had last looked at it “the other day.” He also directed police to a USB thumb drive kept in a red folder in his living room, which he said contained illicit files.
An initial forensic examination of a smartphone found in the living room revealed approximately 70 additional images and videos, with the most recent file downloaded just one day prior to the search.
A preliminary hearing before Kilker is scheduled for July 8
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