STURGIS, S.D. — It was the sharp eye of a couple at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally last August that broke an Amber Alert case that began in Canada.
New details are coming out about the Benjamin Moore case.
It began when authorities found Moore at a campground outside of Sturgis with his common-law wife and two children. Investigators also found child pornography.
Brian Lester and his wife Alahna Gross, Mitchell, S.D., who are regulars at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, reported the family at the camping site they knew to be an adults only campground.
“We started going back to Sturgis every year staying at the same campground where we originally met as a sort of anniversary, you know, a special thing to us,” said Brian Lester.
In August of 2022, they saw something they never expected to see at the rally.
“I awake to the sound of children playing. My wife and I both had the same reaction, ‘Like there’s children in this campground. What is going on?’” Lester told KELO News.
They took photos of the family and reported them to campground security.
The couple later learned the two children were at the center of an international search.
“My wife holds up her phone and says, ‘It’s the kids.’ I ask her, ‘’What kids?’ She replied, ‘There’s an Amber Alert and it’s the kids we were parked next to at the campground.’”
According to court documents, Benjamin Moore illegally crossed the US border near Turner, Montana with the woman and children on August 3, 2023.
Amber Alert for two children canceled after arrest 〉
Six days later, workers at the campground east of Sturgis also reported that Moore was working as a security guard and he and another adult and two children were camping.
When Moore tried to leave, authorities arrested him.
Moore was charged with transporting illegal aliens and child pornography.
Under a plea deal, he will plead guilty to child pornography and faces a maximum of 10 years in Federal Prison.
He could also face charges in Canada. According to a Canadian newspaper that obtained a parole board document on Moore, officials noted, “Moore sought out cognitive deficit women with young children for opportunistic pedophiliac behavior.”
