Former WSU student charged with extortion in case involving 29 women

A former Washington State University student was charged with five counts of extortion with sexual motivation after an investigation found he allegedly harassed and extorted 29 women in Pullman and the Tri-Cities area.

According to court documents, in addition to the investigation involving the 29 women, most of whom were WSU students, Kyle Gaumnitz, 24, has been identified as a possible suspect in three criminal investigations in Washington state involving the same conduct against close to 50 other women.

According to court documents, Gaumnitz allegedly used Snapchat, Tinder and text messages with fake identities to obtain naked photographs of the women, then threatened to disseminate the pictures of the women if they did not do what he said.

He then allegedly demanded the women send more photographs or videos. He allegedly threatened one woman that she needed to have sex with him to prevent him from sending out the photos, and threatened another that he would kill her, as stated in court documents.

According to the certificate of probable cause, the investigation began in fall 2017 when Washington State University Police received complaints of harassment and extortion from two female WSU students. They reported they were contacted by an unknown individual on Tinder and later on Snapchat, through voice calls and text messages.

The man identified himself as Nathan Giles or Jake Johnson.

After the two women provided intimate photographs to the suspect via Snapchat and text message, Gaumnitz allegedly threatened to distribute the photographs to friends and family members of the students through social media if they did no do what he wanted.

According to court documents, Gaumnitz allegedly threatened the women with messages such as “I want you to be my slave,” “you’re funeral” and “I’m going to hurt you.”

In the case of one woman, he allegedly sent her a screen shot of her friends list on Facebook and a photograph of his penis. He allegedly demanded the women send him video of themselves and allegedly told one woman she would need to have sex with him.

When investigating the IP address of the Text Now and Snapchat accounts used by the suspect, Charter Communications and Verizon Wireless provided records that linked those accounts to Gaumnitz.

In February 2018, police searched his residence and seized a desktop computer, laptop computers, tablets and cellphones.

After investigating internet search history, Facebook searches and files of photographs listing names of various women, investigators identified 27 other victims who experienced harassment or extortion similar to the first two victims, as stated in court documents.

Most of the women did not send him photographs, and the majority reported minimal contact with Gaumnitz. But some allegedly experienced ongoing harassment.

One woman allegedly reported the suspect threatened to kill her. The incident was reported to the Moscow Police Department.

Another woman who did send him photographs was allegedly threatened into performing sex acts while he watched her through a video application called Appear.in. He allegedly identified himself as Nathan Giles and created a video room on Appear.in called “gilesrapesyou.”

Many of the victims knew Gaumnitz from attending high school with him in Richland, Wash., or knew him as a co-worker or fellow student at WSU.

According to the certificate of probable cause, Gaumnitz is considered a suspect in other investigations as well. WSU Police is investigating reports of about 12 Air Force ROTC cadets who have experienced similar harassment. The investigator determined Gaumnitz was a member of the Air Force ROTC and would have access to their names and phone numbers. Gaumnitz has not been charged for harassment involving the ROTC cadets.

Richland Police Department is also investigating a report from a woman who said she faces extortion from a man she met on Tinder. After obtaining photographs of the woman, the man allegedly threatened to send out those photographs if she did not comply with him.