One of the suspects in a horrific child-sex case, uncovered when lurid text messages were exchanged on a San Jose-bound flight in view of other passengers, was oddly freed from jail for over a day in what appears to be a procedural oversight, authorities said.

But the FBI said the suspect, a Tacoma woman accused of sexually abusing two children partly at the whim of a Tacoma man she met online, was back in custody shortly after 5 p.m. Friday after federal authorities issued an arrest warrant for her, alleging a conspiracy to produce child pornography.

Gail Burnworth, 50, was arrested Monday on suspicion of felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, rape of a child, and dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. She was in jail in Pierce County, Washington, but was released Thursday because charges had not been filed within the prescribed 72-hour arraignment window, according to jail records and authorities.

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A spokesman for the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s office said the case was under review when Burnworth was released, and that federal prosecutors are handling the case in Washington.

“Right now it’s a federal investigation and federal case,” he said. “We are reviewing the case for possible state charges.”

After she was released, federal authorities immediately began working on securing an arrest warrant, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington declined comment, citing that a case against either Burnworth or presumed co-defendant Michael Kellar has not been filed by the office.

Kellar, 56, remains in the Santa Clara County Main Jail after being charged with two felony counts each of solicitation to commit sexual assault by force or violence, and attempted lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age. He is being held without bail, but has a bail hearing Monday.

His case is also expected to eventually be transferred to federal prosecutors, authorities said, but whether that is in California or Washington remains to be seen.

According to San Jose police, Kellar was on a Seattle-to-San Jose flight on Southwest Airlines on Monday when he reportedly wrote text messages on his smartphone with a large font and in direct line of sight of a woman sitting behind him.

The woman, a Seattle-area preschool teacher who asked police to keep her identity confidential, told investigators she saw text messages that swiftly escalated from mentioning bestiality and other sexual fetishes to detailed comments about child sex acts.

She took photos of some of the texts with her own smartphone and then quietly alerted the flight crew. They contacted San Jose police and its airport division stationed at Mineta San Jose International Airport, the destination for the flight.

Detectives from the SJPD Internet Crimes Against Children task force, joined by San Francisco-based FBI agents, went to the airport and detained Kellar, who reportedly told them that the texts were figments of fantasy and role play. He also apparently consented to a search of his smartphone, and the detectives contacted their Seattle-area counterparts.

The Seattle ICAC detectives tracked the recipient of the texts to a home in Tacoma, where they located and arrested Burnworth, police said. Two children ages 5 and 7 who lived at the home were allegedly made to perform sexual acts at the behest of Kellar, who made detailed requests through the text exchange, police said.

Anyone with information about the case can contact sex-crimes Detective Nick Jourdenais or Detective Sgt. Brian Spears at 408-537-1397 or leave a tip with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-STOP or svcrimestoppers.org.