Police say images found on his phone led to felony charges and a public search for two unidentified victims.
MESA, AZ — A 42-year-old Mesa man is accused of secretly photographing girls and other neighbors through bathroom windows, a case that stunned one family that said the suspect was both a friend and a neighbor before police found images on his phone and made two arrests.
Mesa police say the case has grown from a suspicious-person call into a broader voyeurism investigation involving juveniles, partial nudity, burglary allegations and at least two victims who still have not been identified. The immediate stakes are both criminal and personal: the suspect, Erik Contos, now faces multiple felony counts, while detectives are asking the public to help identify people shown in additional photos recovered during the investigation.
The investigation began late on Feb. 10, when officers were called to the 3000 block of South Massey after someone reported a suspicious person near a home. According to police, the caller said a juvenile family member may have been recorded from outside a bathroom while preparing to shower. The caller also reported seeing a man in the fenced backyard. Police later identified that man as Contos. Six days later, on Feb. 16, detectives served a search warrant and seized his cellphone. A forensic review, police said, turned up multiple images of three people connected to the reporting party. Investigators said several of the images were taken from outside the home through a bathroom window. Some showed the people clothed, while others showed partial nudity. In a televised interview with 12News, relatives described the arrest as deeply jarring because Contos had been known to them personally, with one family member saying, “This was a friend of mine.”
Police say the evidence suggested more than a quick glance from a sidewalk or alley. Detectives concluded that whoever took the photos would have had to enter the fenced backyard to get the angles shown in the images. On that basis, Contos was arrested and booked on charges that included burglary, eight counts of surreptitious photographing and nine counts of voyeurism. Authorities said he was later released on a $75,000 cash bond. The investigation did not stop there. As detectives kept reviewing material on the phone, they said they found another image showing two juvenile females inside a bathroom. Investigators said that image also appeared to have been taken from outside a residence through a window. Police later identified both girls in that image, saying one was already known in the case and the second was identified later. What remains unknown is whether the phone contains images from other homes or other incidents beyond those already described by investigators.
The case has drawn attention in Mesa not only because of the allegations, but because of how ordinary the setting appears to have been. The reported conduct happened in a residential neighborhood, and the people at the center of the first report were, by police account, connected to the caller and living normal routines inside their own home. That has made the family’s reaction part of the story. Station reporting from 12News said the household viewed Contos as a friend and neighbor before the allegations surfaced. Police records released this week add a second layer of concern: investigators said they found two more images believed to depict other victims, but those people have not been identified. To move the case forward, Mesa police released redacted images in hopes that someone would recognize the bathrooms or other details visible in the photos. Local outlets in Phoenix have repeated that appeal as the department tries to determine whether more victims were recorded without their knowledge.
The procedural path is now clearer than some of the underlying facts. Police say Contos was rearrested on March 6 after detectives found additional images during the continuing review of evidence. The added charges included sexual exploitation of a minor and another count of surreptitious photographing. As of Saturday, April 4, Mesa police were still publicly seeking help identifying two people shown in recovered photographs. That means the case remains active, with investigators still working to establish the full number of victims and the full timeline of the alleged conduct. No public court filing reviewed in news reports has answered whether prosecutors will add more counts tied to any newly identified victims. Police also have not publicly described any defense claims from Contos or any explanation he may have given investigators. The next milestone is likely to come when detectives identify the remaining victims or when prosecutors outline the case in greater detail in court.
For now, the most vivid details come from the contrast between the family’s sense of familiarity and the allegations described by police. A friend and neighbor, they told 12News, is now accused of recording girls through a bathroom window from outside the home. Mesa police have framed the evidence as deliberate, saying the images on the phone appeared to be taken from vantage points outside residences and without the victims’ knowledge. Other local outlets have echoed the department’s account that some of the recovered photos showed people partially nude and that at least one later image involved two girls in a bathroom. Those details have turned what began as one late-night call on South Massey into a wider search for answers across the community. Even with two identified juveniles and earlier victims linked to the original reporting party, detectives say they still do not know who appears in two other images recovered during the case.
The case stood at that point Saturday, with Contos already arrested once, rearrested on March 6 and facing a mix of voyeurism-related and child-exploitation charges while police continue trying to identify two additional victims from redacted images released to the public.
Author note: Last updated April 4, 2026.