The FBI and the Department of Justice announced on March 14th that they are seeking to identify potential victims of John Douglas Burch, 54, of Santa Monica, California. Burch has been charged by federal indictment with traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct and enticement of a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct and prostitution. The online child exploitation scheme is reported to have originated in Los Angeles, California, and is believed to have victimized minor females in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and elsewhere, starting as early as 2014.
6ABC Action News reported on the story from West Conshohocken, where Burch is alleged to have traveled to twice and raped one of his victims in a hotel. Locally, he also instructed a victim to wait on a bench at the King of Prussia Mall, where she would meet Burch’s clients to engage in sexual activity. The victim is believed to have been 13 to 14 years of age when she met Burch.
The investigation found, and the charges allege, that Burch used social media, where he regularly posed as a fitness professional, to target mostly minor, and sometime adult, females and pressured them to partake in his “sex slave training program.”
From the announcement from the Department of Justice:
This “training” included, among other things, the requirement that females listen to explicit and sexually-charged audio recordings, watch violent pornography, create pornographic images and videos and transmit the content to him over the internet, the creation of online dating profiles designed to encourage sexual encounters and commercial sex, step-by-step instructions to perform specific sexual acts to be carried out during these meetings, documentation of these meetings via photos and videos. The FBI believes that once the victim was “trained” to Burch’s liking, he would meet the victim in person and force her to partake in illegal and non-consensual sexual acts.
It is also alleged that Burch may have also coerced adult females into “recruiting” minor females via social media. Some contact with Burch may have occurred in person, or through various social media accounts used by Burch. Below are all known social media handles and the corresponding respective platform:
Snapchat: Just 9×6.5a (Display Name), Mr. Bigc0ck (Account Name)
KIK: Mstr_Trainer
Discord: @TheBurch9567
Telegram: Burch
Instagram: “@food_is_not_enemy”; “@notyourfitguru2”; “@not_your_fit_guru_original”; “@backup_notryourfitguru
Facebook: Notyourfitguru
The FBI has setup a page specific to Burch, which allows anyone with knowledge of his actions can submit a report. You can find this page here.
Photo: Screengrab from 6ABC Action News’ video