Tips from people living in the Toronto area have led investigators to a hotel in the southern United States where pornographic photos of an unidentified child were taken.

The photos have been widely distributed on the internet by pedophiles.

On Thursday, Toronto Police released copies with the victim digitally removed, in hopes that someone could tell them who the victim is and where the crimes took place.

One of the altered pictures police used to identify the U.S. hotel.
One of the altered pictures police used to identify the U.S. hotel.

When they took the unusual step of releasing the pictures, investigators didn't know where the photos were taken, who the victim was, or even if the crimes had any connection to Toronto.

Toronto police Det. Sgt. Paul Gillespie
Toronto police Det. Sgt. Paul Gillespie

But within hours of releasing the photos, police were "inundated" with tips from people in the Toronto area about where they thought the pictures may have been taken, said Det. Sgt. Paul Gillespie.

Gillespie said two phone tips naming the same hotel prompted his team to alert the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which dispatched investigators to the alleged crime scene.

Those investigators were able to confirm Thursday that the room seen in some of the photos was located at the hotel in question.

Gillespie declined to identify the hotel, other than to say that it was in a vacation destination in the southern U.S.

However, he did say that a fountain at the hotel, which he described as a "unique feature," was a key to making the identification.

He said the first of the two callers to name the hotel had visited it in the past two weeks. The second tip came from someone who had visited the hotel a few years ago.

Despite the hotel's location, Gillespie repeated Friday that police still believe the victim lives in the northeastern United States or in southeastern Canada.

He wouldn't say what factors led them to that conclusion.

Last year, Toronto police, using child-porn images posted on an international police website, were able to help locate a six-year-old girl from North Carolina who was sexually exploited and abused.