Texas A&M professor commits that after being lured into online sex scam and blackmailed

By HELEN POW

A University professor in Houston leap to his death from a campus parking garage after he was lured into sharing sexually explicit pictures with an underage girl online and then blackmailed by one of her relatives who orchestrated the elaborate scam, police said. Daniel Timothy Duplaisir, 37, from Louisiana, is due to be arraigned in federal court tomorrow on a charge of using a phone and the Internet to extort money from Texas A&M University professor James Arnt Aune, 59.

Aune, a married father of two who was also chair of the school's Department of Communications, committed suicide on the morning of January 8, and sent Duplaisir a text message stating 'Killing myself now. And u will be prosecuted for blackmail' one minute before he died. According to Chron.com, the girl, who hasn't been named, described the scam to police.

She said Duplaisir took nude photos and videos of her and she and the man created a site on MocoSpace.com. Using a fake name and the email address pretty-gurl985@yahoo.com, they targeted men, got their phone numbers and sent them the sexually explicit photos and videos. Duplaisir kept a list of the names and numbers of men they were setting out to extort.

Under the plan, Duplaisir, who was charged in 2011 with aggravated incest and oral sexual battery for allegedly abusing an unidentified female relative, would then call the men targeted by the scam, pretending to be an outraged father and demanding payment to cover the cost of counseling for his daughter. In a series of text messages he exchanged with Aune, Duplaisir also claimed his daughter was transgender so especially vulnerable and in need of therapy.

'It is very hard to help a teenage trans-gender child be accepted in life; to help her find a life worth living,' one of text messages Duplaisir allegedly sent to Aune said, according to Chron.com. 'And you came in with your disgusting (talking).' Over time, the texts from Duplaisir to Aune became increasingly threatening. 'If I do not hear from you I swear to Gold Almighty that the police in your place of employment, students ALL OVER THE INTERNET ... ALL OF THEM will be able to see your conversations, text , pictures you sent,' stated one message.

'And if by some miracle you get away with this I will use every chance I get to make sure every place or person associated with you knows and see what you have done. Last chance, you better make the right move.' The professor told his wife in mid December that he was being blackmailed after being caught up in an online sexual relationship with a minor, according to the FBI affidavit.

On the morning of Aune's death, Duplaisir allegedly contacted him at 9:21 a.m., giving him three hours to come up with the unknown sum of money or 'the calls start.' At 10:29 a.m. Aune replied: 'Killing myself now. And u will be prosecuted for blackmail.' A minute later, according to the FBI affidavit, he jumped off the parking garage to his death. Duplaisir was indicted last week. Texas A&M University didn't comment to the news website in reference to the charges.