Funeral Home Director Lured Teen Online, Recorded Illicit Videos at Funeral Home, Warrant Says
Oct 30, 2018, 10:05 PM | Updated: 11:03 pm
LOGAN, Utah – Lonnie Nyman, part-owner of Nyman Funeral Home was charged Tuesday with multiple counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, dealing in material harmful to a minor, and enticement of a minor.
Lonnie Nyman
The charges stem from an investigation that started some time after Nyman’s estranged wife reported to her attorney that she found illicit images and videos of young males, including at least one minor on Nyman’s iPad, back in March.
According to a search warrant, the wife’s attorney, Tess Davis, arranged for the wife to meet with investigators, but the wife later got cold feet and called off the meeting. As a result, the warrant states that Davis refused to turn over the iPad, citing attorney-client privilege. Investigators say Davis later turned over some of the videos that she received from the wife over email, that were described as, “…videos with several unknown male individuals and Lonnie Nyman engaged in various sexual acts with one another.”
The warrant states that Nyman’s wife identified some of the videos as being shot in the family home, and in a conference room of the funeral home.
Because Davis wouldn’t turn over the iPad, investigators served that search warrant at her office. On the iPad investigators said they found, “…several screen shots/pictures of various nude males that appear to be anywhere from age 15 to 20 years old.”
Investigators say they later identified one of those males as a juvenile, who they say admitted to having sexually explicit conversations with Nyman over the Grindr app. Charging documents Tuesday stated that Nyman shared images of his genitalia with the minor, and received nude images of the minor. In another search warrant, issued to Grindr corporate offices, an investigator said, “According to the juvenile, Lonnie arranged to have sex with the juvenile on one occasion and asked the juvenile to sneak out of his house.”
Charging documents state that the minor later became uncomfortable with Nyman’s behavior, and left.
Nyman told KSL that the accusations were all false, and made up by his soon-to-be ex-wife. Nyman’s attorney, Wayne Caldwell also added that Nyman adamantly denies the charges, and that a very different story will soon come out in court.
