State police: Plainfield man tried to scrub computer to hide child porn collection

PLANFIELD, Ind. — Investigators believe a Plainfield man tried to delete a cache of child sexual abuse material from his computer after a cybertip led state police to his door.

According to court documents, Indiana State Police began investigating Jonathan Cogswell, 59, in September 2023. A cybertip linked to images of suspected child sexual abuse material eventually led investigators to Cogswell’s home on Gary Drive in Plainfield.

State police ended up searching Cogwell’s home in early October 2023. They recovered 20 devices from the home, but it took nearly a year to sift through all the devices in search of evidence of wrongdoing.

According to state police, 19 of the 20 devices were clean but a computer found in a backroom, which Cogswell allegedly frequently used, had traces of nude images of children. Investigators said that it appeared Cogswell ran a program in an attempt to scrub the system files on the computer and remove evidence of the child sexual abuse material.

One year later, state police reportedly uncovered numerous images of child sexual abuse material from the hard drive.

State police spoke to Cogswell on Sept. 19, roughly two years after the start of the investigation. Cogswell reportedly told police that no one but himself should have access to the email that the child abuse images were tied to.

On Thursday, the Hendricks County Prosecutor’s Office charged Cogswell with 10 counts of possession of child pornography, a Level 5 felony.

In Indiana, a Level 5 felony can carry up to six years in prison.