Joseph Layland Jr.: Missouri Tanning Salon Owner Accused of Videotaping Customers

Women say that Joseph Layland Jr.'s tanning salon in the small town of Malden attracted patrons from all around the Missouri bootheel.

"There's a lot more women," client Krista Cullum told news station KFVS this week. "It's not just Malden. We came from everywhere, Gideon, Risco, Campbell, because of the price."

Often, the 36-year-old Layland wouldn't even charge his clients a dime, says Cullum. He was just happy they'd returned to his DJ's Tan and Tone after sending the women friendly Facebook messages, such as, "Your (tanning) bed misses you."

But, then, last week one of his female clients noticed something peculiar inside her tanning booth.

A 1/4-inch hole in the wall seemed to contain a reflective piece of glass like, perhaps, a camera lens. The woman contacted the police and surprise, surprise!

Authorities discovered that Layland had been secretly videotaping dozens of clients at his tanning salon. Moreover, a search of his home found some 444 DVDs and more than 100 VHS tapes, many containing pornography and/or child porn.

Suddenly, it's become something of a perverted parlor game in southeast Missouri wondering who may have landed in Layland's video archive. On Saturday, some 100 women met with Malden police concerned that they may appear nude or semi-nude in the videos. Officials say there is no evidence that that stash was ever uploaded onto the Internet.

Layland has been charged with four counts of possession of child pornography and six counts of invasion of privacy. He was placed in custody on a $500,000 cash-only bond.