Montana man connected to previously missing Arizona teen sentenced in child sex abuse case

HELENA – A Montana man was sentenced to 100 years at the Montana State Prison with 50 years suspended and will not be eligible for parole for 25 years for possessing child sex abuse material, Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced today.

Edmund Davis pled guilty to one count of sexual abuse of children last year after authorities found child sexual abuse material on his electronic devices in 2023. A review of the content determined the individuals depicted to be under the age of 13, with two images of children under the age of 5, including images of infants and toddlers and other computer-generated or animated content showing children being sexualized.

The devices were discovered in July 2023 when the Havre Police Department served a search warrant on Davis’s apartment after learning that a woman, who went missing from Glendale, Ariz. as a 14-year-old in 2019, was living there. When she answered the door, officers observed Davis in the kitchen behind her throwing a cellphone into a trash can and placing items on top of the phone as if to hide it.

The phone and other electronic devices found during the search were transferred into the custody of the Division of Criminal Investigation Computer Forensics Unit in Helena. DCI agents then obtained a separate search warrant for the electronics and identified a known child sexual abuse material photo series and other evidentiary images.

Assistant Attorney General John Nesbitt prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Havre Police Department, Glendale (Ariz.) Police Department, and the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation.