Web of Seduction

Summary

Podcast Summary: 48 Hours – “Web of Seduction”

Original Air Date: May 21, 2026
Podcast: 48 Hours
Host: CBS News (Primary Investigator: Susan Spencer)

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Overview

"Web of Seduction" is an investigative episode exploring the harrowing case of 14-year-old Lindsay Lavoy, who, after meeting a much older man online, was lured across continents into a dangerous web of manipulation, deceit, and abuse. Through in-depth interviews with Lindsay’s mother, law enforcement, and key figures connected to the investigation, 48 Hours exposes the dangers young people face online, the complexities of global cybercrime, and one family’s desperate fight to bring a daughter home. This episode also uncovers the wider network behind the perpetrator, highlighting systemic gaps and the emotional aftermath for survivors and families.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Lindsay’s Disappearance and Online Predation

• Background: Lindsay, a bright and loving 14-year-old from Tampa, Florida, vanished from her home in August 2000.
  • “August 28th, she walked out the door. She was gone. I just wanted to die because I knew I'd never see her. I just knew she was probably going to be dead.” – Stephanie Lavoy, Lindsay’s mother [03:25]
• Online Grooming: Lindsay’s mother discovers her daughter exchanging intimate emails with a 35-year-old man from Greece, eventually identified as Franz Constantin "Kahn" Baring, who proclaimed love and groomed her to trust and depend on him.
• Escalation: Despite parental intervention (removing Internet access, seeking counseling, involving the FBI), Baring continued to manipulate Lindsay; he even threatened the family and hinted he was buying a house nearby.
  • “He had our cell phone number. He told me he knew where we lived… he was just controlling our life.” – Stephanie Lavoy [05:38]

2. The Investigation and International Hunt

• Sergeant Gary Klinger’s Role: The case takes a pivotal turn when Sergeant Klinger of the Polk County Sheriff’s Department takes charge.
  • “When I opened Lindsay's file…it was two weeks since she disappeared …corresponding with a 35-year-old man from Greece. …that to me threw up a red flag.” – Sergeant Klinger [07:24]
• Tracking Lindsay: Through digital forensics and the cooperation of Greek police, investigators traced Lindsay’s online activity to Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Breakthrough: Media coverage in Greece led to a tip—Lindsay found walking in Thessaloniki. Baring fled but was caught later in Athens with massive amounts of child pornography.
  • “He was a godsend from the day he called me and said, I'm going to take a personal interest in your daughter's case.” – Stephanie Lavoy [08:58]
  • “We found 87 discs in his possession. Thousands of pictures, some of Lindsay.” – Chief Investigator Yorgos Kokines [14:09]

3. The Underground Network

• Enablers and Other Victims:
  • Martina Cavario, an unwitting accomplice, helped set up false identities and travel plans for Lindsay, influenced by Baring’s manipulation.
  • The Arnder family in Ohio—Baring orchestrated their involvement for passport fraud and financial reward; police later discovered they were themselves deeply embroiled in abuse and exploitation.
  • “He eventually gets Martina to agree to pick Lindsey up, take her to an airport and put her on a plane.” – Investigator [17:04]
  • Robert Arnder received an 85-year sentence for child rape after police raids (unrelated to Lindsay's case but uncovered during the investigation).
• Baring’s Modus Operandi: Baring had previously attempted similar manipulation with multiple young women worldwide, including teens in Minnesota, Eastern Europe, and Kuwait. Each account mirrored Lindsay’s case—grooming, seduction, and attempts to lure victims abroad.
  • “It wasn't too long after I had met him that he asked me to [visit] Greece.” – Carrie Voss, another target [23:14]

4. Confronting Baring and Systemic Failures

• Incarceration and Interrogation: 48 Hours obtained a rare prison interview with Baring, who maintained his innocence despite overwhelming evidence.
  • “Why are you Americans stuck so much on age? …You stuck too much on 14 year old.” – Kahn Baring [31:12, 26:35]
  • “I don't believe that I'm a monster.” – Kahn Baring [28:06]
• Denials vs. Evidence: Although Baring denied any wrongdoing—including sex or pornography—he was contradicted by survivor testimony, investigators, and physical evidence.
  • “These are pictures taken by Baring himself.” – Chief Investigator Yorgos Kokines [29:33]
  • “He's just a sadistic pedophile.” – Stephanie Lavoy [28:26]

5. Lindsay’s Ordeal and Recovery

• Trauma and Psychological Control: Lindsay’s experience included severe abuse, captivity, forced identity changes, and ongoing manipulation.
  • “He had the power of everything I didn’t have. Basically, no say in anything.” – Lindsay Lavoy [36:25]
  • “Let me just tell you that he was extremely sadistic. It's going to take her years and years to get over it.” – Stephanie Lavoy [13:33]
• Courtroom Drama: Despite fragile health, Lindsay returned to Greece to testify, expressing lingering trauma but ultimately denouncing Baring.
  • “My biggest fear is it's going to trigger a lot of the pain that she's held in for so long.” – Stephanie Lavoy [34:09]
  • “No. No. He's a very sadistic, manipulative pedophile.” – Lindsay Lavoy [37:17]
• Verdict and Aftermath: Baring was convicted but received only eight years. Later appeals failed, keeping him incarcerated but leaving unresolved fears for the family’s future safety.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Parental Fear and Gut Instinct

• “I just went ballistic on him… I want you to leave my daughter alone.” – Stephanie Lavoy [05:51]
• “You better hope I don't have a knife because I seriously want to hurt him really severely.” – Stephanie Lavoy [27:24]

On the Depth of Manipulation

• “He just had her so wrapped by that time that it was just too late to get her to change.” – Stephanie Lavoy [05:23]
• “He almost killed her. I walk the floors at night. I turned the computer on in hopes that I'd hear from Lindsey saying I'm coming home.” – Stephanie Lavoy [08:21]

On Systemic Vulnerability

• “Before I started working this case, you could have never convinced me that a teenage child could walk onto an airplane and fly out of the state, let alone out of the country.” – Investigator [15:28]
• “It’s amazing how they put it together and how it all worked out.” – Investigator [20:49]

On Survivors’ Caution

• “I just had like this gut feeling that he just wasn't…a good person.” – Carrie Voss [23:34]
• “If it could happen to Carrie, it could happen to any person.” – Martina Cavario [24:01]

On Baring’s Rationalizations

• “Why are you Americans stuck so much on age?” – Kahn Baring [26:35, 31:16]
• “I don't believe that I'm a monster.” – Kahn Baring [28:06]

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Timeline & Timestamps for Critical Segments

• [00:54] – Stephanie introduces Lindsay's vulnerability and the online connection.
• [03:25] – Lindsay disappears; mother describes overwhelming fear.
• [07:21] – Sergeant Klinger takes on the case; international angle emerges.
• [10:12] – Baring’s taunting emails escalate; mother’s desperation grows.
• [11:10] – Lindsay traced to Greece; local media involvement tips police.
• [13:17] – Lindsay’s return, physical and emotional state described.
• [14:46] – Arrest of Baring; uncovering child pornography, broader conspiracy.
• [17:04] – Martina’s unwitting involvement in smuggling Lindsay.
• [20:06] – Discovery of additional child pornography and the Arnder family’s crimes.
• [23:14] – Other victims come forward, showing pattern of predation.
• [26:35 / 31:12] – Rare interview with Baring, revealing his self-justification.
• [33:51] – Lindsay returns to testify; testimony complicated by emotional trauma and conflicted feelings.
• [35:00] – Baring sentenced to eight years; lack of closure for the family.
• [36:06] – Adult Lindsay reflects on her experience, ongoing recovery.
• [38:15] – Episode closes with unresolved questions about lasting danger.

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Takeaways

• The Internet can serve as a lifeline for youth but also exposes them to unprecedented dangers.
• Online predators use sophisticated psychological manipulation and international networks to circumvent authorities and victimize vulnerable children.
• Law enforcement may underestimate digital threats and face significant jurisdictional hurdles; persistence and digital forensics are key.
• Survivors face long roads to recovery, with ongoing psychological and legal ramifications.
• Parental vigilance and open communication are crucial, but systemic gaps remain.

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For Additional Support

If you or someone you know is impacted by similar issues, please reach out to local authorities or organizations specializing in cyber safety and child protection.

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This summary covers the core investigative narrative and insights, omitting commercial breaks and non-content segments, while retaining the authentic language and tenor of the participants.

Transcript

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[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I think she just was out there just searching for someone to talk to.

[Susan Spencer (Investigator)]

Do you know who's keeping your child company on the Internet? 14 year old Lindsey met a stranger online.

[Reporter]

What did she say about this guy?

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

That she loved him and that he cared for her.

[Susan Spencer (Investigator)]

When her parents discovered he was 35 and sending explicit love letters, they tried everything to stop him.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I just said, I want you to leave my daughter alone.

[Susan Spencer (Investigator)]

Then suddenly Lindsay was gone.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I just knew she was probably going to be dead.

[Susan Spencer (Investigator)]

Susan Spencer investigates a shocking global cyber conspiracy. Using forged documents.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

She was in a motel, having her identity changed.

[Kahn Baring]

Correct.

[Susan Spencer (Investigator)]

And underground contacts.

[Investigator/Police Official]

They all worked together to get her

[Susan Spencer (Investigator)]

out of the country, luring Lindsay to the darkest corner of the Internet. And she wasn't the first he had tried to seduce.

[Narrator]

That could have been me. That's scary.

[Susan Spencer (Investigator)]

The astonishing story of a family torn apart and a detective determined to find Lindsay and bring her home.

[Investigator/Police Official]

I would be frantic if it was my daughter.

[Susan Spencer (Investigator)]

Web of seduction.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

She was born way early, three and a half months early. I had her. She was only a pound and 10

[Reporter]

ounces when her daughter Lindsay was born. Stephanie Lavoy nicknamed her blonde little girl. Her miracle child.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Lindsey loved life. She loved everything about it. She loved animals. I mean, everything you can imagine. Look at Lindsay. It's real pretty.

[Reporter]

Fifteen years later, later, she says the miracle is that Lindsay is still alive.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

What she went through, no one would want their child to go through.

[Dr. Haruni Bhatt (Podcast Host)]

No one.

[Reporter]

Today, Stephanie has brought Lindsay to a rally for missing kids. I don't believe that we need to terrify our children. I believe that we need to let them know what's out there and who's out there. Well aware that her daughter was once one of them, Lindsey's experience was so painful. She's not yet ready to talk about it on camera.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I beat myself up every day for not finding some way of preventing it.

[Reporter]

The nightmare began in August of 2000 when 14 year old Lindsey simply disappeared from the middle class neighborhood where she lives with her mother, stepfather and brother near Tampa.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

August 28th, she walked out the door, she was gone. I just wanted to die because I knew I'd never see her. I just knew she was probably going to be dead.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Remarkably, Lindsay was found here in the port of Thessaloniki in northern Greece.

[Reporter]

And the story of how she got

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

here is enough to make every family in America throw its computer right out the window.

[Reporter]

Like many 14 year olds, Lindsay was an Internet junkie, spending hours a day on the computer her mother had bought only six months before.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

She's very free spirit and just likes to enjoy learning new things and seeing new things.

[Narrator]

All these people email me and I don't know who they are.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I think she just was out there just searching for someone to talk to.

[Reporter]

But Stephanie couldn't believe her eyes when she saw who Lindsay was talking to and what they were saying.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

These are just all the emails that I have that I printed.

[Reporter]

The letters were from a man in Greece named Khan. Explicit love letters. Lindsay's new pen pal longed, he wrote, to be her husband, to be father to her children.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

She was 14 at the time. And in those letters he stated he was 35,

[Reporter]

even though he was in Greece, 5,000 miles away. Stephanie was worried enough to order her daughter to cut off contact and fast.

[Kahn Baring]

Goodbye.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

We sat her down, my husband and I, when he came home and we just explained to her that this was extremely upsetting and totally inappropriate.

[Reporter]

What did she say about this guy?

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

That she loved him and that he cared for her and that age shouldn't have anything to do with it.

[Reporter]

Lindsay was adamant.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

He just had her so wrapped by that time that it was just too late to get her to change.

[Reporter]

And the emails and letters just kept on coming. Soon the man began calling Lindsey in the middle of the night.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

He had our cell phone number. He told me he knew where we lived and, you know, he was thinking of purchasing a home down the street. And he was just controlling our life.

[Reporter]

Stephanie tried everything.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I just went ballistic on him. I just said, you know, I don't want you calling here I am changing the numbers. I want you to leave my daughter alone.

[Reporter]

She took the computer keyboard with her to work.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

There was no access to the computer in our home.

[Reporter]

Put Lindsey into counseling.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

He just convinced Lindsey that this particular counselor didn't know what she was talking about.

[Reporter]

Even sent the letters she'd found to

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

the FBI and they said that basically there was nothing they could do.

[Reporter]

Then came that horrible August day. Lindsay said she wasn't feeling well. So against her better judgment, Stephanie left her home alone while she went to her job as a legal secretary.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

And when I brought my son home from school about 3:30, she was gone.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

What was the first thing that went through your mind?

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Just terror. And I knew instantly he had something to do with it.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

You did?

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Instant. Yeah, it was just an instant gut reaction.

[Reporter]

The local police said it was too soon to declare Lindsey a missing person.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I had nowhere to turn. Nowhere.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

They thought this was a runaway.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

A runaway.

[Reporter]

Lindsay had a turbulent adolescence and a healthy disdain for authority. But Stephanie was convinced she would not simply run away. That the mysterious man in Greece had in effect kidnapped her.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I felt so helpless because I just knew. And it seemed like no one wanted to listen. Not until Sergeant Klinger came onto the department.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

So this is just part of her file, right?

[Kahn Baring]

Yes.

[Reporter]

Sergeant Gary Klinger of the Polk County Sheriff's Department had just taken over the Missing Persons unit when he opened Lindsay's file. It was two weeks since she disappeared.

[Investigator/Police Official]

She'd been corresponding with a 35 year old man from Greece. Well, that to me threw up a red flag.

[Reporter]

He copied Lindsay's computer hard drive and put his team of cyber sleuths to work. But he really didn't think that a 14 year old runaway with no passport could get very far.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

He kept telling me, don't give up faith.

[Reporter]

Klinger was absolutely determined to get Lindsay back.

[Investigator/Police Official]

I would be frantic if it was my daughter.

[Reporter]

Coming up, Sergeant Klinger reaches out to Greek police to expose what he believes to be an international Internet conspiracy.

[Investigator/Police Official]

They all work together to get her

[Reporter]

out of the country and to hunt down the man who lured a child halfway around the world.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

He almost killed her. I walk the floors at night. I turned the computer on in hopes that I'd hear from Lindsey saying I'm coming home.

[Reporter]

In the weeks after her 14 year old daughter Lindsey disappeared, Stephanie Lavoy was desperate.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Just hoping that I could see that maybe she's on the instant messenger or she's emailed me or something.

[Reporter]

Stephanie's only real hope, Sergeant Gary Klinger.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Sergeant Klinger, he has been a godsend from the day he called me and said, I'm going to take a personal interest in your daughter's case.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

What has she gotten herself into? She can't be thinking straight. That's what he says.

[Reporter]

Her deepest fear was that Lindsay's mysterious Internet pen pal, writing from Greece, somehow had lured her away.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I guess you could call it mother's instinct. You know, how you just get that gut reaction and you just know she was gone.

[Investigator/Police Official]

And I was determined to get her back. I guess just a normal family.

[Reporter]

Klinger analyzed Lindsay's email records and finally identified her mystery man. He was a shady Internet entrepreneur named Franz Constantin Baring, a German national. But actually finding Kahn Baring was another matter. Even though he was emailing Stephanie regularly.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

His pose to you is that he's

[Reporter]

in contact with her, but he doesn't

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

know where she is.

[Lindsay Lavoy]

Yeah.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Throughout the months she was gone, I would hear from him saying, oh, well, I heard from her and she's in California or she's going across the States to the north. It would just be a continual game with him.

[Investigator/Police Official]

He would just taunt her like that all the time, you know. Have you heard from Lindsey lately?

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

And she's worried sick.

[Investigator/Police Official]

Yeah.

[Reporter]

Klinger still doubted a 14 year old with no passport could have made it out of the country. But soon the emails changed. Baring was implying now that Lindsay was with him.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I wouldn't put anything past him or anyone involved with him.

[Reporter]

And rubbing salt into the wound, Baring suggested he had rescued her from an unfit home.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

I know I done right. I just helped a friend to get out from a misery.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Always stabbing that knife just a little bit deeper.

[Reporter]

As the months passed, Klinger funneled information to the Greek police, and he urged Stephanie to keep the lines of communication open.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I was told to kind of play the game.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Your name here is Broken Heart, Mama.

[Ohio Police Officer Todd Beeman]

Yes.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

To help them pinpoint exactly where he was.

[Reporter]

Then Klinger's work finally paid off.

[Investigator/Police Official]

We trace back Lindsay's instant messenger screen name to Thessalonoki, Greece.

[Reporter]

The big break in the case came when police here in Greece decided to enlist the help of the local press.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Soon, pictures of Lindsay and Baring were

[Reporter]

on TV and splashed across newspapers all across the country. Just days later, someone in Thessaloniki saw Lindsay's picture on the news and called authorities. Police found Lindsey walking along this street street near the center of town, apparently

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

not realizing that Baring was walking just

[Reporter]

a few yards ahead of her. They grabbed Lindsey.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Baring saw it and kept on walking. You were out of here like a shot.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I was out of here.

[Reporter]

Amidst the crush of cameras and cops came the moment she had prayed for for five long months.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

When I saw her face, I just grabbed her and hugged her. And she hugged back. It was really nice, wonderful.

[Reporter]

But soon, details of Lindsay's ordeal began to emerge.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Were you shocked at how she looked?

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Yes, I was Just the hair color and very tired and worn.

[Reporter]

Details so awful. She says that despite months of counseling, Lindsey still is too fragile to talk specifically about what happened.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Going days without food, days without showers.

[Investigator/Police Official]

She looks like she hasn't had a shower or washed her hair in weeks. She has dark circles, bags under her eyes, and they may even be black eyes.

[Reporter]

Oh, boy. This is where they lived. Yes, but Lindsay was willing to talk to us off camera about certain things.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

His office comes out into a balcony. And I spent most of my time

[Lindsay Lavoy]

out there looking down at everybody.

[Reporter]

She had slept on the floor and she hadn't slept alone.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Is there any doubt in your mind that this was a sexual relationship?

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

No doubt at all, no.

[Reporter]

Lindsay admitted that Baring had sexually abused her, sometimes even videotaping their encounters.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Awful things. Just he's. Let me just tell you that he was extremely sadistic. It's going to take her years and years to get over it.

[Reporter]

Police turned up the heat in their hunt for bearing.

[Chief Investigator Yorgos Kokines]

We pursued them and discovered they had run away to Athens.

[Reporter]

And acting on a tip, just one day after they found Lindsay, they busted Baring. In this house near Athens. They confiscated staggering amounts of pornography.

[Chief Investigator Yorgos Kokines]

We found 87 discs in his possession.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

87. Wow.

[Reporter]

Thousands of pictures, some of Lindsay. And there was chilling evidence that Baring hadn't acted alone.

[Investigator/Police Official]

It's amazing the how they put it together.

[Reporter]

A cyber conspiracy using bogus documents.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

She was in the motel having her identity changed.

[Martina Cavario]

Correct.

[Reporter]

And underground contacts to lure a vulnerable 14 year old away from her family.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

She had no clue what she was getting ready to be involved in.

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[Investigator/Police Official]

Before I started working this case, you could have never convinced me that a teenage child could walk on to an airplane and fly out of the state, let alone out of the country without some type of idea or challenge.

[Reporter]

In the weeks after Lindsey disappeared, Sergeant Gary Klinger realized he had underestimated Con bearing.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Is this guy just an unbelievably good con man?

[Reporter]

He must be good enough to persuade total strangers to help him smuggle a teenage girl out of the country.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Why would anyone pick up a child from their home? Put him on, go get a plane ticket and put him on a plane.

[Ohio Police Officer Todd Beeman]

Page five. Martina Cavario.

[Reporter]

But that is exactly what this woman did.

[Dawn Arnder]

I thought he was a nice guy. I mean, he was very intelligent, very articulate.

[Reporter]

Martino Cravaro, 24, who worked at a cell phone company in Lindsay's hometown.

[Investigator/Police Official]

This is Martino.

[Dawn Arnder]

He's extremely persuasive.

[Reporter]

Baring had called the cell phone company to set up a prepaid account for Lindsay. Martina happened to take his call, talking with her on the phone and online. Baring convinced Martina that Lindsey was a victim who had to be rescued.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Did Lindsey herself tell you that she was being abused?

[Reporter]

Sexually abused, yes.

[Dawn Arnder]

Emotionally, physically, Sexually.

[Reporter]

So Martina reached out.

[Dawn Arnder]

So I will say it was enough to compel me to want to help.

[Reporter]

Eventually doing the unthinkable, helping a troubled teenager she hardly knew run away from home.

[Investigator/Police Official]

He eventually gets Martina to agree to pick Lindsey up, take her to an airport and put her on a plane.

[Reporter]

You're waiving speedy trial?

[Chief Investigator Yorgos Kokines]

Yes, judge.

[Reporter]

What she did was illegal. She pled guilty to charges of interfering with parental custody and was sentenced to two years of house arrest.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

At the time Lindsey got out of your car, walked into the airport, about to get on that plane, did you have any qualms at all about putting a 14 year old girl on a plane to go off to whatever?

[Ohio Police Officer Todd Beeman]

No.

[Dawn Arnder]

I wanted to help her. I believed her and I wanted to make sure she was okay because I knew she was going to friends.

[Reporter]

Lindsey claimed she was going to stay with her best friend, Dawn Arnder, in Ohio. It was all part of Baring's plan.

[Investigator/Police Official]

This is Dawn Arner.

[Reporter]

The girls actually never had met, but Dawn, 18, and her father Robert were the next players in Baring's elaborate plot to get Lindsay to Greece.

[Kahn Baring]

He did it all.

[Reporter]

We just followed. Not quite. Baring had promised the Arnders, whom he'd met online, $2,000 for their help. He was betting that Lindsay could pass for dawn, use her passport. If only the two looked a little more alike.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

This is where she was brought at the very beginning, actually.

[Martina Cavario]

She stayed at the Arnder residence for a day and then came to Motel 6.

[Reporter]

It was here that Arnder helped Lindsay cut her hair and dye it from blonde to dark brown. He gave her colored contact lenses and a pair of glasses. Belonging to his daughter. Lindsay was here for 17 days under the strictest instructions never to leave the

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

room and never to open the door for anyone.

[Reporter]

The Arnders put the new Lindsay on a bus to New York and handed her a plane ticket to Greece, paid for by Con Baring. Did a pretty good job.

[Investigator/Police Official]

Went into her house through the computer lines.

[Reporter]

Klinger's investigators, meanwhile, had found emails from Dawn Arnder on Lindsay's computer. They called Ohio police officer Todd Beeman, and they discovered the Ohio cops already knew the Arenders. Did they ever.

[Investigator/Police Official]

They'd been out to his house on calls, disturbance calls and various types of calls. 23 times that year, Beeman went online

[Reporter]

to investigate Lindsey's disappearance.

[Martina Cavario]

I assumed an identity as a male juvenile.

[Reporter]

To his surprise, Don Arnder sent him suggestive pictures and bragged that she and her father had helped Lindsey get out of the country.

[Investigator/Police Official]

We went to Ohio to serve the search warrant.

[Reporter]

Lindsay was long gone by then. But police arrested Robert Arnder after they found scores of homemade sex videos at his house. Many featured children. They also found more child pornography from con Baring on his computer.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Is there material specifically relating to Lindsay?

[Kahn Baring]

Yes.

[Martina Cavario]

Yes, there is.

[Reporter]

Robert Arnder later would be sent to prison for 85 years for child rape. In another case, his daughter dawn, it was found, had been a victim of abuse and was placed in protective custody.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

But con Baring, mastermind of Lindsay's escape,

[Reporter]

was still one step ahead of the police.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Having used Martina and the Arenders to get her to New York, he now used his own powers of persuasion to

[Reporter]

get her on that plane, giving her

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

specific instructions on her cell phone every step of the way. This is the most amazing story I've ever heard.

[Reporter]

It is.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

It's just astonishing.

[Investigator/Police Official]

It's amazing how they put it together and how it all worked out.

[Reporter]

Everything went so well that everyone involved in this investigation strongly suspects one thing.

[Martina Cavario]

I don't think she was the first.

[Reporter]

Baring had tried this before. Carrie Voss was 15.

[Narrator]

It wasn't too long after I had met him that he asked me to grease.

[Reporter]

Now let's go. Even as he was led off to prison, Con Baring insisted Lindsay was the only girl in the world for him.

[Kahn Baring]

Lindsey, I love you so much. I know that you love me, and one day we will get married.

[Reporter]

All of his Internet activities were innocent, he claims, Simply the writings of a man infatuated with his one true love. We came here to this Internet cafe

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

where Baring once worked to see how

[Reporter]

much of his story really checked out. And who better to ask?

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Than the people he corresponded with on the Internet.

[Reporter]

One of them gave us Baring's address book and we're emailing every name on it. The list reveals a trail of cyber seduction, or at least attempted seductions. From eastern Europe. To the mideast. To tiny Bigelow, Minnesota.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Here we go, girls.

[Narrator]

Talk it up.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Hey. Go.

[Narrator]

That could have been me. Scary.

[Reporter]

When Carrie Voss was just 15, she went into a chat room to meet other teens.

[Narrator]

I can't remember the exact room that I was in, but I know that it was a teen one.

[Reporter]

Instead, she met a 35 year old smooth talker from Greece.

[Narrator]

He whispered me like that in a chat room. He seemed like a nice guy, but there was. I don't. I don't even know what it was. There was just something that just made me a little wary of him.

[Reporter]

She says Baring asked her for a picture and there were other questions that gave her the creeps.

[Narrator]

He asked me if I was in a relationship and it wasn't too long after I had met him that he asked me to grease.

[Reporter]

That made Carrie so uncomfortable that she blocked Bering from her list of chat buddies.

[Narrator]

I just had like this gut feeling that he just wasn't. Wasn't a good person.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

It could have been devastating.

[Kahn Baring]

You're closed Mondays, aren't you?

[Reporter]

When they bought the computer for Carrie, her parents, Les and Irma, had had a heart to heart with her about safe surfing.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Actually, it gave me goosebumps. It was shocking to think that this type of thing hit so close to home.

[Investigator/Police Official]

If it could happen to Carrie, it

[Martina Cavario]

could happen to any person.

[Ohio Police Officer Todd Beeman]

Every time when he saw me online, he started to talk to me.

[Reporter]

It also happened to this young woman in eastern Europe who began chatting online with the same charming stranger with the same MO.

[Ohio Police Officer Todd Beeman]

He started to ask me to send

[Reporter]

him a picture of me and the same request.

[Ohio Police Officer Todd Beeman]

Why don't you come? It's so close, so, so near to where you live.

[Reporter]

When she refused, Bering actually went to visit her and scared her so much that even now she is afraid to show her face or even to reveal her native country.

[Ohio Police Officer Todd Beeman]

He was looking at me nonstop. In a strange way, I can say I was feeling very uncomfortable. He mentioned something. He would like me to be his girlfriend.

[Reporter]

Which is the same basic story he told a 23 year old woman in Kuwait whom he also courted online for almost two years. She, like Lindsay, thought she was in love with Kahn Baring. She only agreed to speak with us by phone.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

So you, you had a definite plan you were going to get married.

[Reporter]

That's right. Bering even had proposed to her.

[Lindsay Lavoy]

Yeah, exactly.

[Reporter]

So I talked to my parents and say the few you thought this whole

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

time that you were the only person that he was talking to, that you were. That you were the love of his life, right?

[Lindsay Lavoy]

Yeah.

[Reporter]

But little did she know, he already was married and even had a child. Baring kept that tidbit to himself. Lindsay didn't know either. In fact, none of the women had a clue about the others.

[Chief Investigator Yorgos Kokines]

He certainly has a reputation for being a smooth talker.

[Reporter]

But investigators agree Baring's intentions went far beyond simple seduction.

[Chief Investigator Yorgos Kokines]

I strongly believe that he belongs to an international child pornography ring

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

from 48 Hours.

[Reporter]

From CBS, talk to Mr. Bering.

[Kahn Baring]

Welcome.

[Reporter]

We managed to get inside a Greek prison to confront Bering.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

On that we've waited a long time to talk to you and on a

[Reporter]

few other things as well.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

I still don't understand what you plan to do with this 14 year old girl.

[Kahn Baring]

Yeah, why are you Americans stuck so much on age?

[Dr. Haruni Bhatt (Podcast Host)]

What if everything you learn in history class was only half the story? I'm Dr. Haruni Bhatt, host of Hidden History. Every Monday I go where history gets mysterious. Vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena and events that science still can't fully explain. On Hidden History. I treat these moments like open case files. Not myths, not superstition. Just incomplete explanations waiting for a closer look. Listen to and follow Hidden History, available now wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

What if he walked in here now?

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

You better hope I don't have a knife because I seriously want to hurt him really severely.

[Reporter]

Stephanie Lavoy thinks Con Baring has a lot to answer for. And after hearing about Lindsey and the other young women, we had a few questions of our own here for Mr. Baring. Yes, the Greek justice ministry has a strict policy. No TV interviews in prison, period.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

But this case is so controversial and so important to the image of justice

[Reporter]

here that the minister himself intervened on our behalf, giving 48 hours an exclusive

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

opportunity to speak directly with Kahn Baring.

[Kahn Baring]

I don't believe that I'm a monster.

[Reporter]

Bering insists he is anything but a monster. That in fact, from the moment he met Lindsay in an online chat room,

[Kahn Baring]

first thing, what you're talking about is music.

[Reporter]

He was a friend to a troubled girl who claimed she was being abused.

[Investigator/Police Official]

As far as we can tell, she was never an abused child.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

He's just a sadistic pedophile.

[Reporter]

But Baring portrays himself as always the perfect gentleman, insisting his intentions were honorable. Did you ever have sex with her?

[Kahn Baring]

No.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

But you slept together.

[Kahn Baring]

Yes. Sometimes.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

And you never took any pictures of her yourself?

[Kahn Baring]

Naked for myself?

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Uh huh.

[Kahn Baring]

Never.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Never, Never. And I didn't take any here in Greece.

[Kahn Baring]

Never.

[Reporter]

He says helping abused children is his passion. And any suggestion that he traded in child pornography is flat out obscene.

[Kahn Baring]

I hate pornography.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

You hate pornography. Lindsay says that the two of you watched it.

[Kahn Baring]

Two show her what is right and what is not right.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

So first you bring her here to save her and then you show her pornography to protect her.

[Kahn Baring]

Now you regular white knight, you tried to put me something in my mouth. No, it's not true.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Well, they found something. You know, like 37 CDs in one of your offices.

[Reporter]

Kitty porn.

[Kahn Baring]

No, they didn't.

[Reporter]

Well, they did.

[Kahn Baring]

No they didn't.

[Reporter]

Well, we've seen it.

[Kahn Baring]

No they didn't.

[Reporter]

Mr. Baring.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

It's part of the evidence in this case.

[Reporter]

We've seen seen it.

[Chief Investigator Yorgos Kokines]

These are pictures taken by Baring himself.

[Reporter]

Chief investigator Yorgos Kokines believes Baring eventually planned to use Lindsay as a prostitute and even force her to appear in pornographic film.

[Chief Investigator Yorgos Kokines]

We believe he planned to sell the pictures of Lindsay.

[Reporter]

Police still are investigating the source of his porno pictures. Many of which depict children as young as as four.

[Martina Cavario]

There was a lot of indications that some of these pictures have gone out all over the states. We kept a pretty detailed log.

[Reporter]

Ohio police officer Todd Beaman says Baring and Robert Arnder traded hundreds of pictures. Considered themselves big time porno kings. In fact, Baring's email inbox is full of porno sites. But incredibly he claims his only interest in porn was in trying to stop it.

[Kahn Baring]

In the Internet you will find about 170 organizations against child porn in the whole world.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Right?

[Kahn Baring]

I'm a member. In about 68.

[Reporter]

He sent us a partial list of those organizations and we checked as many as we could find. None ever had heard of Kahn Baring.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

I feel like I have an obligation to tell you that no one on the earth is going to believe that explanation for why there was all this pornography.

[Reporter]

I know you don't care.

[Kahn Baring]

I have explained that before he first

[Reporter]

claimed cops planted the porn to frame him.

[Kahn Baring]

How many people can put in my hard drive whatever they want.

[Reporter]

Then admitted he did have a collection. But also a noble cause.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

I still don't understand what you plan to do with this 14 year old girl when she got here.

[Kahn Baring]

You stuck too much on 14 year old.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

I am.

[Kahn Baring]

Why are you Americans stuck so much on age?

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Because she's still a child.

[Chief Investigator Yorgos Kokines]

Yes.

[Kahn Baring]

For you for you as a child. For me she was not a child.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Well, you don't victimize somebody like that.

[Kahn Baring]

This is your opinion? Victimized? I don't call this victimizing. I call this safing.

[Reporter]

But Baring admitted that as time went on, his feelings for Lindsay did begin to change.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

You and Lindsey were going to get

[Kahn Baring]

married, making life together?

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Yes, she's 14 now.

[Kahn Baring]

She's 15 and a half.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

No, she's 15 and a half. She was 14 when she came here.

[Kahn Baring]

Okay, she was 14 and three quarters.

[Sergeant Gary Klinger]

Do you realize what parents sitting at home listening to this will think? This would absolutely terrify them. To think that some guy in Greece can coordinate a smuggling job that well,

[Kahn Baring]

no, I don't agree. They should be very thankful. Lindsay hope that Lindsey will be well. I love her very much.

[Reporter]

In April of 2002, Constantine Baring went on trial on charges of pornography and having sex with a minor.

[Kahn Baring]

Never had any sexual contact.

[Reporter]

And Stephanie Lavoie returned to Greece alone to testify against him.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I told him on the phone one day that he's taken the wrong mother's child and I'm going to stick to it and make sure he gets put away.

[Reporter]

But that hope quickly vanished.

[Kahn Baring]

I hope that Stephanie will know what

[Reporter]

means justice without Lindsay. The court ruled there could be no trial. Stephanie simply collapsed. Crushed by the decision, the judge demanded that the 16 year old Lindsay appear in person, fragile or not, to tell her own story. She just might kill herself if she has to come here. Lindsay's remarkable journey to the Greek court and her even more remarkable journey to find herself. July 2002. Lindsay returned to Greece with her mother Stephanie, to confront the man charged with abusing her. This despite fears that the 16 year old Lindsey, who's on medication, was far from ready for this.

[Kahn Baring]

I know that Lindsey is already here.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Could prove to be very dangerous for Lindsey emotionally and mentally because of the psychological control he has.

[Reporter]

When the moment arrives, the judge clears the courtroom and Lindsey takes the stand.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

My biggest fear is it's going to trigger a lot of the pain that she's held in for so long.

[Reporter]

She explains in detail how Baring sexually abused her and asked that he go to jail for. For what he did. But then, astonishingly, she tells the court she loves him nonetheless.

[Kahn Baring]

She said that she still loved me. She said that twice.

[Reporter]

Stephanie says Lindsay's been brainwashed.

[Kahn Baring]

So if they punish me, if they don't punish me, I don't care. I don't care. I care what's happened with her. It's only what I'm interested for nothing else.

[Reporter]

The court deliberates for just two hours before declaring Baring guilty. But the sentence is light. Eight years.

[Kahn Baring]

I will not forget you, Lindsay.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

I want him gone for a long time. What would he get in the States? 20s, 30?

[Reporter]

Con baring seems almost pleased.

[Kahn Baring]

She loves me. And now when I came out from the courtroom, she said that she loves me and she will wait of me and.

[Investigator/Police Official]

You have eight years to think about that.

[Kahn Baring]

I don't have eight years. Don't believe that. Thank you.

[Reporter]

He was almost right. Two and a half years after our first report, Stephanie and a dramatically different Lindsey returned to Greece yet again. What's it like to be back here?

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Painful but necessary.

[Reporter]

Con Baring had appealed his conviction. The court could set him free in a matter of days.

[Kahn Baring]

No, I don't have anything to say. If I have something to say, I say it only through the Greek rest. Thank you.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

Lindsey and I have just decided we're going to take care of what we have to do here, and that is to keep him here in jail as long as we can.

[Reporter]

Lindsey is now 18 and doing better.

[Lindsay Lavoy]

I'm gonna do interior design and psychology and a degree in philosophy.

[Reporter]

And this time she agrees to speak to us on camera.

[Lindsay Lavoy]

I was very confused through the whole relationship, so I can't really, you know, say how I think he treated me.

[Reporter]

Although it's still painful to talk about the details of that relationship.

[Lindsay Lavoy]

He had the power of everything I didn't have. Basically no saying anything.

[Reporter]

It's getting a little bit easier.

[Lindsay Lavoy]

Yeah, it is, slowly, but there's really no control over it. You know, it'll go away for a little bit, and then it'll come back, you know, go away and come back.

[Reporter]

Lindsay suffers from flashbacks. She sees a therapist twice a week and is still on medication. But time has given her a better perspective on why things happened the way they did.

[Lindsay Lavoy]

I didn't know anything about the Internet or about. I thought he was, like the smartest, most greatest person in the world. Some term that some people use is crazy love or sick love because you're just so caught up in it.

[Kahn Baring]

She said that she still loved me.

[Reporter]

She's come a long way from the girl who told the court two years ago she still loved Con bearing. Does she now?

[Lindsay Lavoy]

No. No. He's a very sadistic, manipulative pedophile.

[Reporter]

The hearing off limits to cameras. Doesn't take long.

[Chief Investigator Yorgos Kokines]

20 minutes, half an hour about we're gonna have the decision.

[Reporter]

That decision, Baring's appeal is denied. It's back to prison for at least six more years.

[Kahn Baring]

Try to find me.

[Reporter]

The ruling gets the by now predictable reaction from Baring only take care of Lindsay.

[Kahn Baring]

Everything else I have to say on the telephone.

[Reporter]

And a sigh of relief from Stephanie.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

We finally have a little bit more time to get well, to try to move on.

[Reporter]

But someday con baring will be out and both mother and daughter wonder if the nightmare that started so innocently on the Internet ever really will end.

[Stephanie Lavoy (Mother)]

He's not going to let her go. He's not going to let her alone and Lindsay knows it.