Man charged in Forsyth County child exploitation case after cybertip

A Charlotte man is facing three felony charges after Forsyth County investigators said a cybertip led them into an online child exploitation probe that stretched across multiple agencies and into the Triad.

Officials identified the suspect as 24-year-old Eli Gray, who was charged with three counts of felony second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. Investigators said the case began in February 2026 after a cybertip came in through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a signal that has become a recurring starting point for these kinds of cases.

The Invictus Task Force executed a search warrant on May 14, 2026, and Gray was taken to the Forsyth County Detention Center. He was due in Forsyth County court on May 15. The case was handled with help from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Computer Crimes Unit, underscoring how often these investigations now depend on cooperation between local and state agencies.

The Invictus Task Force is built for that kind of work. It links the sheriff’s offices in Randolph, Alamance, Davidson and Forsyth counties with Homeland Security Investigations and the State Bureau of Investigation, creating a regional enforcement network aimed at online child sexual exploitation cases that do not stop at county lines.

For Forsyth County families, the broader message is that cybertip-driven investigations are not rare outliers. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says its CyberTipline is the nation’s centralized reporting system for online exploitation of children, and investigators in the region have been using that pipeline repeatedly. Authorities have made other child exploitation arrests this spring, including a case announced on April 23 and another in May, showing a steady enforcement pattern across Forsyth County and the surrounding Triad.

The Gray case adds to that pattern and signals that agencies are continuing to use digital evidence, interagency warrants and coordinated task force work to move quickly once a tip comes in. In Forsyth County, that has turned the CyberTipline into one of the most important entry points for enforcement when online exploitation is suspected.