Federal agents use blurred image to track down pedophile in race against time after he posted picture of a child online and asked how he should rape her

Federal agents were able to track down a pedophile and save an 11-year-old girl from being raped in a race against time after studying a blurry image posted on the internet.

Homeland security agents in Washington were horrified after they saw the photograph of a sleeping girl in pajamas at the back of a car, with an appeal on it for how best to rape her and get away with it.



Special Agent Jim Cole was assigned to rescuing the girl in an operation they called 'Sunflower'.

He explained to CNN how his team were able to track down the victim and arrest her would-be attacker just by examining small clues in the picture.



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Operation Sunflower: Homeland security agents in Washington were horrified as they saw the photograph (blurred here) of a sleeping girl in pajamas at the back of a car with an appeal for how best to rape her and get away with it

Search: The agents started driving down every highway in Kansas beginning with two - which was the only discernible number in the blurry image - until they eventually found the sign

'This Sunflower series [of photos] was being posted by an individual who was looking for information on how best to rape this little girl and get away with it.



'The advice he was getting online ranged from drugging her to brutally attacking her. It was progressing so we were extremely concerned for her welfare.'

The agents started examining the pictures for clues that might give away her location. A blurry road sign at the top left hand corner gave them their first and best clue.

The road sign was undoubtedly that of a sunflower and the number of the highway inside it said 203 - or so they thought.

The sunflower led them to Kansas as it is their state flower. But when agents went to highway 203, the sign wasn't there.



'We began looking at the road sign. It really looked to most of us like a highway 203, and there was a highway 203 in Kansas, [but] when we got there, got off the plane the agent from Kansas said "it's not 203, we just drove the whole highway, the sign's not there",' Cole explained.

Rescue: Working with the local sheriff's department - who recognized a backyard swimming pool in another one of the pictures - they were able to track down the child

Homeland Security Agents: Special Agent Jim Cole, right, was assigned to rescuing the girl in an operation they called 'Sunflower' after seeing her picture on the internet

So, in a race against time, they started driving down every highway in Kansas beginning with two - which was the only discernible number - until they eventually found it.

Working with the local sheriff's department, who recognized a backyard swimming pool in another one of the pictures, they were able to track down the home the child was being kept in and save her before the rape took place.

'When we went in that morning, [the 11-year-old girl] was still wearing those same pajamas as depicted in the images.'

Former ICE Director John Morton told CNN that while Operation Sunflower rescued 123 children, there are still many more victims across the country.

'As satisfying as the arrests in Operation Sunflower have been, today is obviously a day of mixed emotions because this operation is ultimately a tale of the perverse, pervasive and violent exploitation of children - very young children to satisfy the dark pleasures of a group of twisted adults,' he said.



'Sadly, some of the children were very young. For example, some of the children we rescued were between the ages of two and three. Nine children were between the ages of four and six.'





