A New Paris man was taken into custody after state police at Hollidaysburg received a tip from officers in Washington state, leading them to discover alleged child and animal sexual abuse material on the man’s electronic devices.

Seth William Shomo, 32, was arraigned Wednesday by Magisterial District Judge Tonya M. Osman on 15 felony counts each of creating child sexual abuse material and disseminating child sexual abuse material, single felony counts of possession of child pornography and criminal use of a communication facility, as well as a single misdemeanor count of sexual intercourse with an animal and a summary count of cruelty to animals.

Shomo was remanded to the Bedford County Correctional Facility in lieu of $750,000 bail.

The investigation by state police at Hollidaysburg began on Jan. 31, when a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cybertip was received by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and assigned to the Southwest Computer Crime Unit. The tip was created by a detective with the Puyallup Police Department in Washington state after officers allegedly discovered child pornography over the course of a yearslong investigation into a case in that state, according to the affidavit of probable cause.

The Puyallup detective reported in the tip that 15 files of child sexual abuse material depicting a juvenile female and juvenile male between the ages of 10 and 12 years old in sexually explicit poses had been uploaded, distributed and saved, the police report states.

Puyallup police began investigating Joshua Strickland on June 30, 2022, for crimes relating to the sexual abuse. They discovered Facebook messages between Strickland and Shomo from October 2022 to November 2022. In the messages, Strickland told Shomo he had “tons more to share” if Shomo wanted to “share pics again,” to which Shomo agreed. Shomo then sent Strickland the 15 photos of the juveniles that were later located by Puyallup police, the report states.

A search warrant was executed Wednesday at Shomo’s residence along the 3800 block of Cortland Drive in New Paris, Bedford County. On scene, Shomo agreed to speak with state police and allegedly admitted to taking the sexually explicit photos of the two juveniles and sending them to Strickland, according to the affidavit.

Officers seized multiple devices from the residence and previewed on scene. They reported finding multiple files of child sexual abuse material on Shomo’s cellphone. Officers also discovered two videos of Shomo engaging in sexual intercourse with a dog, according to the affidavit.

Shomo is scheduled for a preliminary hearing March 25 in front of Osman.