Alamance County man arrested after juvenile images found on phone

Investigators said a juvenile girl’s photos and videos were found on a phone tied to Elvis Cruz, leading to his arrest on a felony secret peeping charge in Alamance County. He was being held without bond at the Alamance County Detention Center.

The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office said deputies first spoke with a Burlington Police Department detective on Friday about an incident involving an Alamance County resident. During that investigation, images and videos of a juvenile girl were discovered on a phone allegedly belonging to Cruz.

Cruz was taken into custody on July 11. The charge listed in the case was felony secret peeping, a serious allegation that places the focus on how the material was obtained and what other evidence investigators may have reviewed as the case developed.

The arrest places a local child-safety issue in the center of a digital evidence case, where a phone can carry the details that move an investigation forward. In Alamance County and across the Piedmont Triad, recent child-sex and exploitation cases have also started with cybertips and undercover work, including a June 2026 case that began with a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and a 2021 Alamance County arrest that grew out of an undercover investigation.

For parents, schools and youth-serving organizations in Burlington and across the county, the case is a reminder that investigators are often working through electronic files, not only witness statements, when they build an arrest. The sheriff’s office and Burlington police have not publicly detailed whether any additional devices, victims or charges are part of the case, but the phone evidence already put Cruz in jail and the matter now moves into court under a no-bond hold.