St. Francois County deputy and his wife charged with conspiracy to sexually abuse a girl

ST. FRANCOIS COUNTY – A St. Francois County sheriff’s deputy and his wife were charged Friday with attempted sexual abuse of a child under 12 years of age.

According to prosecutors, David Blankenship and Karlie Blankenship exchanged messages on the video-sharing app TikTok about plans to drug and rape a child on camera.

Both have been charged with attempted first-degree sexual trafficking of a child and attempted sexual abuse of a child. They are being held in jail without bail.

The St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department said Friday that Blankenship was fired immediately when Missouri Highway Patrol officers informed dispatch of the allegations. David Blankenship’s Facebook page states that he was a police dog handler.

Police said they began investigating the two in March when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children contacted the Missouri Highway Patrol and said 39-year-old David Blankenship had uploaded suspected child pornography to TikTok.

Investigators sought a search warrant and said they found direct messages on the app between the Blankenships in which they shared several videos of young girls they found attractive, discussed their desire to rape underage girls, and talked about how they could find local children for that purpose.

In another conversation, the two spoke at length about plans to rape a specific child they knew. They said they planned to drug the child with psilocybin mushrooms, Xanax, methamphetamine, muscle relaxants, and “Molly” to incapacitate him.

David Blankenship told his wife he had purchased sex toys for the child and sent the woman an Amazon screenshot of the order, police said. When he explained the plans to rape the child in her sleep, Karlie responded with a heart emoji.

According to investigators, the two also talked about making videos of the crimes and selling them on the Internet.

Missouri Highway Patrol investigators contacted David Blankenship of the Farmington Sheriff’s Department on Thursday. He was uncooperative and refused to speak with the officer, investigators wrote.

They later executed a search warrant on the Blankenships’ home in St. Francois County and found the two sex toys that David Blankenship said he had purchased for the girl, as well as some of the drugs that had been mentioned in their conversations.

During an interview with 28-year-old Karlie Blankenship, she told police that she never responded to the things she had heard in the news.

The St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department wrote on Facebook on Friday: “As these disturbing allegations continue to come to light, Sheriff Bullock and the entire department are angry and dismayed at this individual’s breach of trust. We urge anyone with information or potential victims to contact the Missouri State Highway Patrol.”