CAPE GIRARDEAU – A Cape Girardeau County, Missouri man who placed a hidden camera in a residential bathroom was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison.
Ross Andrew Schaefer, 50, will be on supervised release for 20 years after his release from prison. Schaefer pleaded guilty in June in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau to one count of production or attempted production of child pornography. He admitted placing the camera in the bathroom beginning at least in 2022, when his victim was 12 years old. Investigators discovered videos on Schaefer’s phone and a thumb drive.
The Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Office, the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Hunter prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.