Cherokee County authorities are looking for a 56-year-old French national suspected of trying to buy a 5-year-old child, a purchase he apparently hoped to make online.

The sheriff’s office said Monday that investigators, acting on an anonymous tip, searched Patrick Ange Molesti’s Woodstock’s house last week. He was not there, but investigators seized his computer where they found evidence of child pornography, the sheriff’s office said. No other information was released regarding the alleged attempt to buy the child.

Molesti is believed to still be in the metro Atlanta area, the sheriff's office said.

He is described as 6-foot-1 and weighing 200 pounds. Molesti has brown hair and brown eyes. Authorities say he is  armed with a handgun and driving a 2002 white Chevrolet van.

Anyone with information about  Molesti should call 911 or the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office at 770-928-0239.

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Lt. Gov. Burt Jones — pictured at an August rally in Peachtree City that also featured Vice President JD Vance — appears to have scored another legal victory over gubernatorial rival Attorney General Chris Carr in their battle over campaign finance issues. (Arvin Temkar/AJC 2025)

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