Cedar City man arrested for allegedly sending sexual photos to officer posing as 12-year-old

CEDAR CITY, Utah (ABC4) — A Cedar City man was arrested after allegedly sending inappropriate photos to an undercover officer posing as a 12-year-old girl.

Joshua Henry Quist, 27, is facing two charges of criminal solicitation-sexual exploitation of a minor and two charges of distributing materials harmful to a minor.

According to arrest documents, a Cedar City officer was performing undercover operations on a website named ChatIB as a 12-year-old female. On May 27, 2025, a male with the screen name “Cedar City” contacted his undercover account.

The account description said that “Cedar City” was a 27-year-old male in Utah. During a conversation with the undercover officer, documents say he was “made aware and acknowledged” that he was speaking with a 12-year-old girl. At this point, he exchanged phone numbers with the officer, whom he believed was the minor.

Police were able to verify Quist’s identity through his phone number and a photo he shared of his face. According to police, during text conversations, the officer sent a fake photo of a 12-year-old (that was in reality a female Cedar City officer with an age filter) to Quist. In response, he shared a picture of his face and an inappropriate sexual photo of himself.

At this point, Quist asked for sexual photos of the 12-year-old girl, and the undercover officer declined. The next day, he would send another sexual picture of himself in a text and ask for pictures again, according to documents.

On May 29, the Cedar City Police Department arrested Quist. According to documents, he admitted that he was chatting with who he believed to be a 12-year-old and that he had shared inappropriate pictures. He also confessed to the officer that he had “done this previously 10 times to other minors.”

Quist was booked into the Iron County Jail on May 29 and is currently being held without bail.