The path that led Ohio prosecutors to charge Wade S. Christofferson with attempting to sexually exploit a child began a month ago, when they say a Utah father figured out the code that Christofferson had been using with his daughter.
The federal prosecutors allege Christofferson had been using this secret language to shield his sexually explicit requests of the 7-year-old girl in letters he had been sending her from Ohio for at least six months. The Utah father discovered the code on Nov. 5, prosecutors say, after he overheard a FaceTime conversation between his daughter and Christofferson and began asking them questions.
Police started investigating a week later, after the Utah man’s brother in Ohio reported that Christofferson had allegedly sexually abused his daughter, too.
This timeline was detailed in a charging document that The Salt Lake Tribune obtained Thursday from the federal prosecutors’ office in southern Ohio.
Christofferson — whose older brother is an apostle and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ governing First Presidency D. Todd Christofferson — was charged on Nov. 20 in federal court in Ohio with attempting to sexually exploit a minor, along with a second count of coercion and enticement. The 72-year-old was booked into jail that same day in Utah.
The charging document alleges Christofferson was FaceTiming with the Utah girl on Nov. 5 when her father overheard him asking her to see “snow” and “friends.” After Christofferson’s request, federal prosecutors say, the girl went into a bathroom closet and closed the door. Her father opened the door a few seconds later, according to charges, and found the girl lifting up her shirt to the camera.
The Utah girl told her father, and later investigators, that Christofferson had taught her code words, and that “friends” meant “nipples,” and “snow” referenced her genitals. The father told investigators that Christofferson had been sending his daughter letters over the past six months that used these and other sexual “code words.”
The Tribune generally does not identify alleged sexual assault victims and is not specifying how Christofferson knew the two girls in an effort to protect their privacy.
The Utah girl also told investigators that Christofferson had touched her inappropriately in the past and told her “that she would like it when she got older,” according to the charges.
Christofferson also allegedly admitted to the Ohio father that he sexually abused his 10-year-old daughter several years ago more than a dozen times, the documents say. Christofferson has not been charged in state courts in Utah or Ohio in connection to these allegations as of Thursday.
The docket in the federal case in Ohio has been under seal, and there’s no defense attorney listed in Utah records for Christofferson.
Christofferson allegedly admitted abusing the two girls to their fathers, according to the charging document, and told the Utah man in a Nov. 6 text message: “I am deeply sorry for what I have done and will be meeting with my bishop to start the repentance process.”
Latter-day Saint bishops, or lay leaders of congregations, all have access to a 24/7 help line, which the church encourages them to use in cases of suspected abuse.
For its part, the church says “when abuse occurs, the first and immediate responsibility of church leaders is to help those who have been abused and to protect vulnerable persons from future abuse.”
Critics have countered, however, that the help line — staffed by attorneys for the church’s Salt Lake City law firm, Kirton McConkie — is mainly designed to shield the church from lawsuits.
Police in Dublin, Ohio — where Christofferson lives — searched his home in November, and a review of his phone allegedly revealed a search history for criminal defense attorneys in Ohio and Utah, as well as the phrase, “In Ohio do clergy have to report child abuse confessions.”
The answer in Ohio, according to a 2025 law, is that it depends on how the clergy learned of the abuse. In Utah, the law says clergy “may” report abuse obtained through a confession, but it does not require them to do so.
Christofferson also looked online about leaving the United States, the charging document says, and texted a family member in Arizona on Nov. 11 to ask if he could come there for “an open-ended stay” starting on Nov. 13.
It’s not clear why Christofferson was in Utah by Nov. 20, where he was booked into the Salt Lake County jail. Utah’s court docket does not indicate where he is at in the extradition process back to Ohio, which was ordered Nov. 25 by a Utah federal judge.