Timeline revealed for case that led to Finkel's arrest

A mother of a Missouri teenager brought David Finkel’s online persona to light.

More than a year later, Finkel is being detained by the U.S. Marshals for Sexual Exploitation of a Minor Victim and Possession of Child Pornography.

The former director of the Strand Theatre in downtown Shelbyville and long time member of the Shelbyville Central Schools board appeared Monday afternoon in a Southern District of Indiana courtroom where he waived his right to a preliminary hearing. He will be assigned a public defender and remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals.

In late April of 2024, Daviess County Missouri Sheriff’s Department received a complaint from a woman who found sexually explicit messages, images and videos on her teenage daughter’s cell phone that were being shared via text message.

Here is the timeline from that initial complaint.

April 24, 2024: The girl’s cell phone was submitted to the United States Secret Service for forensic examination and analysis.

May 14: Daviess County Sheriff’s office retrieved a thumb drive containing the completed forensic examination.

June 21: Agents met with Daviess County Sheriff’s detectives in Gallatin, Missouri, regarding the investigation and obtained copies of all the sheriff’s reports and a thumb drive with the results of the forensic examination.

June 23: The FBI field office in Kansas City, Missouri, opened an investigation.

July 10: FBI Missouri agents conducted a review of the communications between the teenage girl, born in 2011, and unknown subjects. Law enforcement identified one of the participants in the conversation as a minor male, born in 2008, in Pennsylvania.

During an interview with the girl, she stated that the boy asked her to take part in a “three-way conversation” with an older female identified as “Emma.”

July 29: Law enforcement served an administrative subpoena to Verizon wireless requesting records for the telephone number associated with the teenage boy.

Sept. 26: An interview with the boy took place at the Children’s Advocacy Center in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He was shown messages from the group chat which contained telephone numbers associated with the teenage girl and the adult female.

The boy stated either he or the girl met the adult female on a website called “Y99,” a chatting site with random private and group chat rooms.

The boy stated he probably talked about “inappropriate stuff” which included sending pictures.

The adult female was referred to as Emma.

The phone number associated with Emma was determined to be a VOIP number owned by Inteliquent, Inc.  and using the internet-based application “TextMe, Inc.”

Nov. 22: Law enforcement served a subpoena to TextMe, Inc. requesting subscriber information for Emma’s telephone number.

Nov. 26: TextMe produced subscriber information which listed the username as “theduoheneage4413” that was activated on April 16, 2024.

Dec. 5: A subpoena was served to Comcast for the IP address associated with the TextMe account.

Dec. 6: Comcast provided subscriber information for the IP address. The subscriber name was David Finkel of Shelbyville, Indiana.

Law enforcement served a subpoena and non-disclosure order to Google for the email address, “theduoheneage@gmail.com.”

Google provided the information requested on the same day.

That determined the name “T Heneage” had an account recovery email of dfinkel251@gmail.com.

Dec. 10: A subpoena was served to Google regarding the dfinkel251@gmail.com address. That determined the subscriber was David Finkel.

Dec. 18: Verizon provided subscriber information associated with Emma’s telephone number which listed David Finkel at 251 W. Broadway St.

On or about May 8, 2025: Law enforcement conducted physical surveillance for the first time in the vicinity of the Shelbyville address.

On or about June 3: A search warrant was authorized by a Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana for Finkel’s residence and person.

June 5: Indianapolis FBI executed the search warrant on Finkel’s residence. Finkel was interviewed at his residence during the search.

Finkel confirmed he had a “TextMe” number and anonymously chatted with others. He stated had had been chatting for approximately a year and a half.

Finkel indicated he chatted online using different websites and apps including Y99, Chatiw, Teleguard and Discord.

Finkel stated chatting was fun and explained, “what people do in fantasy is different than what people do in real life.”

He admitted to pretending to be a different gender, different age and had sent sexually explicit images/videos to other adults.

Finkel denied communicating with minors online.

Finkel cooperated with the FBI during the serving of the search warrant including unlocking his cell phone. That is where approximately 35 images/videos that contained child sexual abuse material were identified in a hidden folder in the photo album of his phone.

That folder contained numerous sexually explicit images and videos of minor children, including images and videos of infant and toddlers being sexually abused.

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