The Downfall of Lover Boy Only: Hunting Russia’s Most Uncatchable Kidnapper | The Case of Greg Squire | UNSEEN

The footage you're about to see shows the moment when Special Forces agents finally discover the location of the most un-catchable kidnapper. Two weeks earlier, a user by the name LBO posted a message on the dark web that said, "I kidnapped a boy." With it, he shared a photo of the seven-year-old, alive, and in distress. The problem is, messages on the dark web are impossible to trace, and yet, two weeks later, Special Forces agents are convinced that they have the right location. The footage shows them struggling to break into this barricaded house. There's no way of knowing how many men are inside, or if they have any weapons. But one agent breaks through a window and jumps in. Suddenly, we hear yelling as a fight breaks out behind the wall. But nothing could have prepared the agents for what is waiting for them inside the house. No one would have found seven-year-old Nikolai if it wasn't for one dedicated agent who launched an international manhunt, forcing Russia and the U.S. to work together to uncover the location of the most disturbed criminal on the dark web, all to save one seven-year-old boy. Nearly 5,000 miles away in Boston, Massachusetts, Special Agent Greg Squire has been working for the Department of Homeland Security for over 12 years. When I started my career, basically, they said, "Hey, you're going to be assigned to the cyber group." And I said, "Okay, great. I was just ready to start working." Our group specializes in crimes against children. I had two kids at that point. I really didn't know what we were getting into. I didn't know much about the crime or how it was investigated or any of that type of stuff. I hadn't had any exposure to it. It wasn't long before Greg was sent to video that would open his eyes as to what his work is really about. I think it was a Sunday morning and the kids had been playing up on the deck there by the windows. Well, if I grab my work laptop, that was when I saw the one email from the suspect. And I noticed there was an attachment. The attachment was a video. When Greg opened it, he could see a bedroom which had a child's bed. On it was a children's book. And then an adult male walked into frame, sat on the bed and started to read the book. For that 30 seconds, it looked like something normal. But then, the man put down the book and the video took a disturbing turn. Just watching him do this, I was ready to murder him. Like, you're not going to find a better fuel to go hunt someone down than that. The knee-jerk reaction to instantly look away. You need to shoulder that. You know, these children deserve to have the life my children have. In the beginning, it was much easier for Greg and his team to catch criminals. They could track down emails, IP addresses, and get search warrants for websites if they had a lead. But it wasn't long before every criminal online transition to the dark web. Here's this portion of the internet that's completely anonymous. Law enforcement isn't there. So they quickly learned that if they can create these websites on the dark net, they can elude law enforcement like 98% of the time. But now, the number of sites on the dark web and the number of users have increased dramatically. Going up from a few hundred people to hundreds of thousands. Because of this, Greg's team decides to dedicate their work to dark web activities. And they quickly discover that the community of online offenders are now building forum-based websites. On the outside, they look like normal forums where people with shared interest discuss their topic of choice. But these users share disturbing material freely 24 hours a day. And just like any social media platform, it quickly becomes a quest for attention. It just becomes a breeding ground for who can be the more shocking person. With this anonymous network, they were hiding nothing. They felt free to say whatever they wanted. And that's frightening. Greg knows that these networks need to be dismantled. And the best way to do that is to infiltrate the community. Greg goes undercover and pretends to be one of them. He spends years talking to criminals, pretending to be their friend, saying things they would say so they will trust him. He spends his days engaging with people he despises. But the worst he's ever encountered is a user called LBO. Even other users were going, "What's wrong with this guy?" You know, he's talking about really violent and extreme things. Throughout the years, Greg has multiple interactions with LBO. Then in November of 2020, LBO captures the attention of the entire community by claiming that he is kidnapped a boy. At first, nobody takes him seriously, saying he just wants attention. Until LBO takes it upon himself to provide a proof of life photo of the boy. A blonde-haired boy. I can see his face clear as day, clearly in distress. That really made my heart start to race. Greg is terrified, knowing this boy is trapped with this monster. What's worse, he has no idea where in the entire world the boy could be. The only thing Greg does know is that LBO speaks English and Russian. His first thought is to contact law enforcement agents in Russia, as well as other countries like Ukraine, where Russian is widely spoken. Greg is hoping that the boy will appear on a missing person's list. Nearly 5,000 miles away in Moscow, criminal intelligence officer Ivan Semenikhin is sitting at his work laptop when he receives an urgent email from Greg. In the email, Greg explains that he discovered pictures of a boy, someone claims to have kidnapped. He describes him as being 6 or 7 years old with blonde hair. Right away, Ivan responds to Greg and asks if he can send the pictures he saw online. It doesn't take long before Ivan receives another message from Greg. When he opens the attached picture, Ivan can't believe what he's seen. He immediately recognizes that the boy is 7-year-old Nikolai, a boy who went missing nearly 2 months prior. Everyone in Russia has heard about Nikolai's disappearance, and until now they all thought he was dead. 43 days earlier, September 28, in the small village of Gorky, a 7-year-old boy named Nikolai was headed home from school when at 2pm he got off the bus. His house was less than a quarter mile away, which is only a 6-minute walk, but he never made it home. That night, the boy's parents called the police, and right away a massive search operation was organized, bringing in volunteers from every neighboring town. And by 10pm, nearly 400 people were calming through the fields and forests, looking for the boy. October 1st, Nikolai had been missing for over 72 hours. Authorities had already looked through every nearby lake, swamp, and stream. Every single house in Gorky was being searched. Police carefully checked every security camera for any cars entering or leaving the village between 2 and 3pm. They were able to account for every vehicle that drove in and out of town, except for one, a black Renault Logan sedan. Right away, authorities sent out a bulletin to track it down, but with no luck. October 12th, two weeks after the boy's disappearance, people no longer believed they would find him alive, and those still searching were now looking for a body. The 10,000 posters of the missing boy put up in every surrounding city and village became a heartbreaking reminder that he was not coming back. The decision was then made to pack up the search headquarters. Vovon had told us that they had called off the search, and you know, now we had called and said, you know, we think he's alive. While Granks' discovery breathes life back into the investigation, he's also the only one who knows how dangerous Albiot really is. We weren't under the illusion that Albiot would do anything but kill this boy. It'd been talking about that stuff for years, kidnapping and killing a boy, and that was nerve-wracking. It's November 10th, 2020. Granks has connected the boy in Albiot's pictures to a real boy missing in Russia, but he has no way of knowing where the boy is being held. Users are impossible to trace on the dark web, and even if he is in fact still in Russia, the country spans over 6,000 miles and 11 time zones. Greg is now in constant contact with Ivan as they share everything they know about Nikolai's case, but time is running out. If they don't find him soon, Albiot is going to kill him. For Ivan, it seems impossible to find him in time when all they have to work with are a few pictures of the boy and the messages written by Albiot. It looks as though all hope is lost, but what Ivan doesn't know is that this is exactly what Greg was faced with six years earlier during the Lucy investigation. January 2014, Greg's team discovered a series of disturbing photos circulating across the dark web of a girl named Lucy. She was probably 7 years old in the earliest pictures, and 12 in the most recent ones, which meant she had been living this nightmare for 5 years now. I mean it really was, it kind of took us back a breath. Greg knew he had to do everything he could to find this girl as fast as possible because until he did, her nightmare would continue. The problem was, all they had to work with were the photos themselves. - The images that are on the dark web, they don't contain what's called XF data, they don't contain a signature. - So he and his team started looking for objects in the pictures that could reveal a clue about the location. - Looking at almost every pixel and trying to see what in those pictures could be unique, could be regionally specific. In the images, we could see light sockets, electric outlets. So we knew it was most likely a little girl here in the US. - However, this specific offender proved to be very skilled at covering his tracks. He would crop or alter images to remove specific things, making it nearly impossible for Greg to make any sort of progress. Still, he and his team spent hours everyday scrutinizing these horrific pictures. The days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, looking at countless pictures of Lucy, watching her grow up in a horrible environment. For Greg, the work was starting to take its toll. Having his own children at home, the content he was forced to watch every day impacted him on a more personal level. What if it happened to his daughter? - That almost enables you to push harder. Like, I work 10 hours today. I bet I can work 12. You just push yourself and push yourself and push yourself. - August 2014, eight months after the first photos of Lucy were found, Greg and his team identified a piece of furniture with possibly a far more limited number of sales than any other object previously identified. They got in contact with manufacturers and distributors to ask for a list of customers. But what they received was a list of 40,000 names across 29 states. And each person would have had to be looked at and eliminated individually. For Greg, the news was devastating. They were still no closer to finding Lucy. - Nine months is a long time to look for somebody. And as we're doing an investigation, she's still being a (beep) - September 2014, Greg was at the office, ideating with his team as they were all living with the same frustration. Every object they had found in the picture so far were dead ends, every t-shirt, lamp, or piece of furniture. They needed to find a way to outsmart this offender. - And that's how we came to look at the bricks. One afternoon, Thursday afternoon, we just started to focus it on this photo. And it was just very strange that there was bricks in exposed brick wall inside this child's bedroom. So we thought there has to be someone who's an expert at bricks. - Greg did a quick search on Google and one of the first links that comes up is the Brick Industry Association. The website had a phone number for their offices in Virginia. - We figured why not. And just picked up the phone. The woman answered the phone, I explained who I was, that we were looking for a missing girl. We don't know where she is in the United States, but we'd like some help if somebody could help identify these bricks. - The woman told Greg to send an email with a clear picture of the brick and that someone from their distribution list would get back to him. - And we were wrapping things up for the day. And I don't think I was even at the car before I started getting emails. This was a particular brick from a particular plant in America. - Greg was ecstatic. Could this be the breakthrough his team had been hoping for? As he was driving home from work, he got on a call with the man who recognized the brick. John Harp, who worked for the ACME Brick Company in Texas. - And I said, well, what can you tell me about it? Because we're gonna want to ask you for sales records. He kind of chuckled at that point because he had been making that brick since the '70s. And I was like, you know, I think he could tell he kind of took the wind out of my sales a little bit. - Greg was disheartened. It looked as though he'd reached another dead end. Based on what John said, there were probably tens of thousands of people across the United States with those same bricks. But Greg was about to learn that wasn't entirely true. And he says, hey, you know what, bricks are? And I'm like, you got me, sir, I don't know. He goes, bricks are heavy. And he said, I can tell you right now that brick did not travel 50 miles outside of this plant. And then the lights turned on in my head. Now we can take this pin at that brick factory and draw 50 mile radius around it and take all those results we did from the furniture, from the clothing, from all those items, and only focus on the ones inside that 50 mile radius. And that just blew the case wide open. - This new piece of information had whittled down the list from 40,000 people to around 50. All through the night, Greg and his colleagues looked up every one of those people on social media hoping that on one of those profiles, they might find a picture of Lucy. - Probably by 9 AM, we were flipping through social media pages and there was Lucy right in front of us. - Couldn't believe it. - They also discovered that living in the house with her was her mother's boyfriend who, as it turns out, was a convicted sex offender. Because it was nine o'clock in the morning, they presumed Lucy was at school. They had to act fast to get agents on the ground and inside the house before she got home. They had to make sure she was never hurt by this man ever again. Greg, who was in Boston, Massachusetts, contacted agents in Texas and right away, a team was dispatched to the home. But as the hours passed, Greg wasn't getting any news. He was halfway across the country, unable to help if something happened. All he could do was wait. By 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Greg became even more concerned, knowing Lucy would be soon heading home from school. That was when he got a phone call. - And around 3 o'clock, we're in the house and she's safe. The suspect was in custody. After nine months of investigation, Greg and his team were finally able to put an end to Lucy's nightmare. They started from a series of pictures that could have literally been anywhere in the world and narrowed it down to one house. November 2020, six years after Lucy was rescued, Greg is once again faced with the same situation. Seven-year-old Nikolai has been kidnapped in Russia and held captive for 45 days now. However, unlike the Lucy investigation, Greg and his team don't have hundreds of pictures to work with. They only have three. But what they do have are thousands of messages written by LBO. They're going to need all the help they can get if they want to find this boy before it's too late. - We knew we were gonna need some serious resources. Large data sets, large databases, that interpol holds. - Greg writes a message to an old colleague of his over 4,000 miles away in Montenegro. He knows that even if there's a six-hour time difference, no matter the hour, he's going to get a reply from his friend, Gordana. - I received a message from Greg. I know Greg long time. Greg knows that I speak Russian. - Gordana Vujesic is an analyst from Interpol. She's also part of the crimes against children unit. I start working on this case and nothing else, because I know that the life of this kid is in our hands. - Greg shares with Gordana everything he's collected on LBO from his interactions over the years. - We were in literal constant contact to 20 plus hours a day. I'm not sure Gordana was even sleeping to be honest. Greg, Gordana and Yvonne are all in different time zones. Nevertheless, they communicate at all hours, day or night. None of them even thinks about sleeping. - I just think we must find him. We must find him. Because he will kill him. - They also get their hands on a large amount of digital files provided by Brazilian police. Files that were found after Greg helped them take down one of their own dark web networks. More than 13,000 of those files contain information linked to LBO. The hardest part is that, like most users on the dark web, LBO is paranoid about security and extremely careful when he shares pictures or writes messages. - It was very difficult to find him, but they made mistakes. And we are hunting for these mistakes. - As more and more data is collected about LBO, Gordana is able to build a profile of him based on three specific details. The first is that LBO seems to be suffering from schizophrenia. In Russia, people diagnosed with schizophrenia are entitled to a pension, which is a monthly compensation from the government. This means if they can get their hands on the list of people receiving this pension, they can cross-reference it with the other two details. The second is that LBO seems to talk openly about his brother's occupation. The third detail was found by Gordana in a single conversation LBO once had with another user, where he shared the fact that his mom died in a car accident in a specific year. Right away, Greg sends a message to Ivan, who has access to Russian databases and asks him to look for any individuals who would fit this profile. Out of almost 150 million people in Russia, only one person does. And we began to cross-release the pension by psychiatric hospitalization. turns out to be a couple of meters, 94 years of birth. Our story, as if it was a piece of cake. 26-year-old Dmitry Kopilov. Greg and his colleagues are sure beyond any doubt. This is the man who calls himself LBO. The only question remaining is, is the boy still alive? November 19th, in Russia, Yvonne discovers a location of Dmitry's residence, which is in the village of Makarika, just 12 miles from where Nikolai was taken. At 9.45 pm, several units are deployed to the scene. They park their vehicles half a mile down from the house to make sure the kidnapper doesn't hear the sound of engines or see the headlights. And in the dead of night, the special agents quietly make their way to the house. By 10 pm, the perimeter is entirely surrounded. They have no way of knowing how many people are inside, or if they have any weapons. The front door is reinforced with steel and opens outward, which makes it impossible to bust open. Even with a breaching ram, nothing works. [SPEAKING SPANISH] [SPEAKING SPANISH] The first agents who broke in through the window immediately apprehended 26-year-old Dmitry Kopylov. And in the next room, seven-year-old Nikolai is found safe. [SPEAKING SPANISH] The one sent me a message and said, we have the boy. He's safe. I think I've often seen him at this moment. [SPEAKING SPANISH] It was maybe three in the morning. And I just wake up in a little bit panic. When Gordana checks her phone in the middle of the night, she sees she has a message from Russia. It's a picture of Ivan holding seven-year-old Nikolai. No words to explain this moment. Shortly after, a minibus arrives at the headquarters of Makadika. Inside are the boy's parents. After 52 days in captivity, Nikolai is finally reunited with his family, his first word, mama. Seeing that picture of his parents hugging him. Kind of makes you think of when you hug your own kids. It just brings a totally different value to that. A month earlier, these parents were told their son was dead. Yet here they are with their son and their arms. Maybe the most special moment in my career. When looking into Dmitry Kopylov's past, investigators discover that a year prior get kidnapped his own cousin. But because the boy was returned home quickly, the case was dropped. It's not unlikely Dmitry was simply rehearsing for when the moment came when he would abduct Nikolai. As investigators will later find out, he had been planning his crime for quite some time. He had moved from the town of Suzdal and bought a house with a basement on the outskirts of the tiny village of Makadika. He spent months renovating the house, installing plumbing, heating, and excavating around the property. The locals described him as being strange and solitary, yet no one thought twice about their new neighbor. - He had a good impression. He was a boy, he came to talk to himself. I'm a new neighbor, I'm called Dimann. - The problem was, no one in Makadika was aware that this exact car, a black renaled Logan Sedan, had been identified in connection to the disappearance of seven-year-old Nikolai. Because of this, they never suspected a dangerous offender was now living among them, and that in the basement of that house, Nikolai was being held captive. - In the years, Gregg has spent working with the child protection unit. He's taken down some of the most dangerous criminals out there. He's also saved the lives of countless children. But because his work happens mostly behind the scenes, he rarely gets to see what has become of those children he helped. Until recently, more than a decade after her rescue, Gregg got the chance to meet Lucy, the survivor from his first dark web case. - Like the whole idea of even being able to have this conversation someday, like it feels like a miracle in a way. - Like at that point, I had been praying actively for it to end, not to sound cliche, but it was a prayer answer. - Sounds weird, I'm sure. But like, you wish there was some telepathian, you could reach out and be like, listen, we're coming. We're gonna get there. - For years, Gregg struggled to cope with the dark side of humanity he was confronted with, but it taught him to treasure each moment with his own kids. - I have a conscious effort about recognizing what's going on that's good. Like every moment with my kids, I'm truly thankful for that stuff. Today, Gregg's children are all grown up and live successful lives of their own, which is the best thing any father could ask for. Gregg has spent almost 15 years without taking any time off. The reality is, for these kids on the dark web, the nightmare never stops. As Gregg puts it, if someone has to make a sacrifice, it's going to be me. - I believe in this mission beyond 100%, and I believe in the people, I believe in, you know, we can make a difference. - What little sacrifices I feel like I've made over the years, I would do it again, over and over again. I feel honored to be part of the team that can make a difference instead of watching it on TV, going, "Shit, that's f***ing awful." I'd rather be right in there in the fight, trying to stop it.