FBI agents are looking for an 11-year-old girl they believe a Canada man molested earlier this year in Salisbury.
Joseph John Palassio, 61, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to charges of using the Internet to attempt to entice a child to engage in sexual activity and traveling across state lines with the intent to engage in sexual activity a 10-year-old girl, who was actually an undercover agent.
Gregory Jones, special agent in charge of Atlanta Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said he has reason to believe Palassio stopped in Maryland and victimized an 11-year-old girl before traveling to Atlanta, where he was caught by FBI agents.
“Child predator cases always leave law enforcement officials with the concern thatwe?ve done everything possible to identify all victims that have come into contact with these individuals,” Jones said.
According to the U.S. Attorney?s Office in Atlanta and the information presented in court, in March, Palassio contacted an undercover agent of the FBI through an Internet chat room.
During the course of several conversations on the phone and over the Internet, the defendant expressed his desire to travel to Georgia from Canada to engage in sexual activity with a 10-year-old girl.
Palassio said he had engaged in similar conduct in the past, and he would be traveling to meet a mother and an 11-year-old girl there to engage in sexual activity with them to Maryland before arriving in Georgia.
Palassio stopped in Salisbury on March 12 and is believed to have been in that area for at least two days, according to the FBI.
Since his arrest, he has declined to state whether he met with the 11-year-old girl at that time.
The FBI is asking that anyone with information about Palassio?s contact with children in Maryland to contact the Atlanta FBI office at 404-679-9000, or the Baltimore FBI Cyber Squad office at 410-265-8080.
