PORTSMOUTH, Va. — A hidden camera, potentially spying on a family in Portsmouth for months, was found in their rental home back in December 2022. Two weeks later, their home caught fire.
Now, the Boone family is speaking to WTKR Investigative Reporter Margaret Kavanagh for the first time publicly and showing us the video they took the day the hidden camera was found in their shower.
Watch: Video shows moment Portsmouth family finds hidden camera in shower of rental home
After the family said they heard ringing coming from behind a two-way mirror in the shower wall, contractors found a hidden camera with cords attached to it.
The Boone family was renting a home on 400 block of North Street in Olde Towne Portsmouth.
The family says the two-way mirror was in their shower when they moved in 16 months prior.
"We started hearing like a ring coming from the bathroom," said Sineathia Boone. That ringing led them to discovering the unthinkable: a hidden camera positioned behind the two-way mirror.
Previous coverage: Portsmouth family finds hidden camera in bathroom; Weeks later, fire destroys house
This was the only shower in the home. The family of four with two teens were absolutely horrified.
"You had a camera filming kids, filming my wife and me in the shower. I mean, that is the most devastating, torturous thing you could do," said Barry Boone.
The Boones were disturbed by what they found in December 2022 and felt extremely violated.
"The cord ran all the way through the home… and it ran all the way upstairs on our third floor in the office," Sineathia Boone said.
WTKR recently reached out to Portsmouth Police for an update on the situation.
They said, “The detective assigned to this case informed Ms. Boone that officers retrieved the hard drive connected to the camera and did not locate any files or recordings. The detective also informed Ms. Boone that the department sent the hard drive to a federal law enforcement agency for analysis, which did not find any files or recordings. Therefore, due to a lack of evidence, no one was charged.”
WTKR reached out to the FBI. They issued the following statement:
"Portsmouth Police Department is the lead investigative agency. I refer all inquiries to them."
WTKR consulted with Ricardo Frost, the Vice President of RFK Solutionz, a Chesapeake business that provides cybersecurity services and training. He said the setup was "very disturbing" and that live-streaming was a possibility, even though no files or recordings were found on the retrieved hard drive.
“That's definitely possible from the placement of the cameras, the type of equipment that the cameras were using, the Ethernet connections,” said Frost. “It's definitely possible there could have been a livestream that was happening in real time. That might be one of the reasons why they were not able to find any information or data on the hard drives.”
But it’s unclear if live-streaming was part of the investigation done by law enforcement.
"It was strategically put there. Someone had to put the time to cut a hole, put a camera in there and then run all these wires up to the motherboard that was found upstairs in the closet," Sineathia Boone said.
About two weeks after the hidden camera was discovered, the house caught fire, and the Boones lost everything.
Their teenage son was home alone sleeping when the house became "engulfed," Sineathia Boone said. She said luckily, his girlfriend at the time called him and woke him up.
The family believes the fire could have started by all the cords in the wall. WTKR requested fire reports from the city, and we're waiting for a response from them.
To make matters worse, Barry Boone says he cut his leg when he went back into the house after the fire a few days later, and the infection ultimately led to the loss of his leg.
"We feel like our privacy was neglected and two weeks later, we lose everything. It's just one thing after the next—we still have not gotten any justice for this," Sineathia Boone said.
The Boones have hired new legal representation and continue to fight for answers, as they still have concerns that the person who installed the camera could do the same to another family.
