Court documents: Nude photos on 11-year-old's phone traced to NC youth pastor

WILMINGTON, N.C. — A Florida woman found nude photos on her son's cellphone that police said she traced back to a North Carolina youth pastor.

Court documents showed that the mother had a parental control option for her 11-year-old son's cellphone.

Tyler Smither is the youth pastor at Harbor United Methodist Church in Wilmington.

(Tyler Smither)

Court documents said that Verizon notified the boy’s mother that someone with an unknown number was contacting her child. When she searched the number on Facebook, she found it was linked to Smither.

Two days after Smither's arrest for indecent liberties with a child, the church discussed the situation.

“In my heart, I was furious, so angry,” said Pastor Russ Nanney. “It's a, for a lack of a better word, a soul ache. It's truly a soul ache and I don't know how to describe it.”

Smither is expected to appear in court next week.

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