'Shocking and disturbing': State employee tells of finding remote cabin full of child porn



OLYMPIA, Wash. – It’s being described as an illegal treehouse of horrors.

“Doing illegal activities such as this on federal or state land won’t go unnoticed forever,” Washington State Department of Natural Resources trail steward Christopher Jones.

Daniel M. Wood, 56, of Mill Creek is facing child pornography charges in King County Superior Court after an FBI investigation tied him to the treehouse and dug up more child pornography in his Mill Creek home, according to court documents.

Once Jones located the structure, what he found inside was even more disturbing.

“It was shocking and disturbing,” said Jones. “I’ve worked in the woods for 11 years and never seen anything quite like that.”



Jones says it took him several attempts to locate the long-rumored, illegally built cabin deep inside the Snoqualmie National Forest near North Bend.

“Tar paper that had been cut out to make it look like a, I’ve heard it described as a gingerbread house, and it looked much like that,” said Jones.

So far officials don’t know who built it but it’s what Jones says he found inside that he says was most disturbing.

Images of young children, some younger than 10 posing naked, were found in frames on the walls.

Jones told the King County Sheriff’s Office about the pictures, who then notified the FBI.

Court documents say an alert hiker told investigators about a truck they had seen parked at a trailhead near the cabin, and investigators say the truck belonged to Wood.

Investigators trailed Wood and were eventually were able to identify him as a suspect by matching his DNA found inside the cabin with his DNA found on a discarded water cup.

After serving a search warrant at his Mill Creek apartment investigators allegedly found digital storage devices containing more pornography; some were the very same images that had been posted inside the cabin.

“I’m glad that justice is hopefully going to be served in the process,” said Jones. “I was just a small part of this but I’m glad something is being done.”

Building structures in federal or state forests is illegal. Jones thinks the child porn suspect and whoever built the cabin picked the spot because it’s so isolated.

Now Jones is taking pride in being part of an investigation that could take child pornography out of the forest and out of the hands of an alleged predator.

“I try and keep my personal and professional lives separate,” said Jones. “However, I am disturbed as an uncle to see this type of material abused in the way it is.”

Officials from the U.S. Forest Service told Q13 News whoever built the cabin, if convicted, could face jail time, steep fines and be required to pay for repairing the area if construction damaged the environment.