Hansen vs. Predator (partially lost chatlogs, uncut interviews and police interrogations; 2015)
Hansen vs. Predator (also abbreviated to HvP) is a hidden camera investigation series broadcast on Crime Watch Daily in 2016. Running for a single season, it was a spiritual successor of To Catch a Predator, featuring host Chris Hansen confronting adult men arriving at a sting house with the intent to have sex with minors between the ages of 12 to 13, following an often graphic online conversation with the child.[1] In reality, the minors were instead decoys consisting of adults from the online watchdog group Tetrad Core, who would establish online profiles of underage individuals that would wait for adults to initiate conversation with them. The sole investigation, conducted in October 2015 in Fairfield, Connecticut, resulted in the arrests and convictions of eleven men.[2]
Full chatlogs, interviews and interrogations
Unlike the chatlogs of most TCAP predators, which can be easily accessed on Perverted Justice's website, the HvP chatlogs were not publicly made available by Tetrad Core. However, despite the organisation disbanding sometime in mid-2017[3], the majority of chatlogs and associated images have since been found and uploaded in full to YouTube, with most videos providing narration. Of eleven chatlogs, only Stephen Buchanan, Michael Popovich and David Tiriolo remained unaccounted for.
Meanwhile the edited versions of each predator confrontation can be easily accessed on YouTube. However, the uncut interviews and subsequent police interrogations proved difficult to access. Initially, most uncut footage was published on Chris Hansen's own website as part of a subscription service. Among these consisted of footage of Vincent Ambrosio, a nineteen year old whose segment was never broadcast on Crime Watch Daily due to concerns regarding Ambrosio's wellbeing when the sting occurred. However, Hansen's website became inaccessible in January 2020 following Hansen's firing of web producer Vincent Nicotra, who in response suspended the website with the message "Hansen vs Predators is suspended due to non-payment".[4]
With the help of various YouTubers, the majority of footage has since been recovered and uploaded to YouTube. Of the Hansen confrontations, only three, concerning Mike Manzi, Charles Lawrence and Michael Gentile, have yet to resurface. Regarding police interrogations, the interviews of Popovich and Gentile are completely inaccessible, whereas only highlights of Buchanan and Jesse Velez have resurfaced.
Status of full chatlogs, interviews and interrogations
Predator | Chatlog | Uncut Hansen confrontation | Uncut police interrogation |
---|---|---|---|
Stephen Buchanan | Lost | Found | Partially found |
Joshua Colon | Found | Found | Found |
John Dupee | Found | Found | Found |
Jesse Velez | Found | Found | Partially found |
Mike Manzi | Found | Lost | Found |
Charles Lawrence | Found | Lost | Found |
Michael Popovich | Lost | N/A | Lost |
David Tiriolo | Lost | N/A | Found |
Jeff Sokol | Found | Found | Found |
Michael Gentile | Found | Lost | Lost |
Vincent Ambrosio | Found | Found | Found |
References
- ↑ Interview with Chris Hansen regarding Hansen vs. Predator Retrieved 15 Dec '20
- ↑ Description of Tetrad Core Retrieved 15 Dec '20
- ↑ Temple of TCAP forum discussing Tetrad Core's disbandment Retrieved 15 Dec '20
- ↑ Reclaim The Net article regarding the inaccessibility of Hansen's website Retrieved 15 Dec '20