57 photos, 6 videos: Arnold gym sued after woman discovers secret nude recordings

ARNOLD, Mo. (First Alert 4) - A new lawsuit against an Arnold gym is raising concerns about privacy and safety, after a woman discovered she had been secretly recorded while nude inside the gym’s tanning room.

“It just makes you concerned about everything you do in your daily life,” Kayla Ferrel Onder, Lead Attorney for the case and founder of Kayla’s Survivors, exclaimed.

A routine task for some people, quickly turning into a nightmare.

“You pay for a gym membership, they have these services, you automatically trust that they’ve done what they need to do to keep you safe. You’re placing your trust in this business,” Onder stated.

This happened at Xist Fitness in Arnold, located west of Interstate 55 on Vogel Road.

According to the petition, Arnold Police went to the gym back in July after a member reported seeing a cellphone held over the wall between her tanning room and the one next to her.

Police identified Erik Nilsen as the person recording her, and investigators allegedly found 57 images and six videos of nude or partially nude gymgoers on his phone. They said the recordings date back to 2021.

“It’s a huge invasion of privacy,” Onder said. “Going to a gym, tanning, you know, these sorts of things a lot of us do on a daily basis. We expect that we’re going to be safe, and when something like that happens, it just jolts your expectations, it jolts your sense of trust.”

According to the petition, Xist Fitness employees controlled access to the tanning area and assigned each patron a room. It stated that the rooms’ partial walls did not reach the ceiling or the floor, leaving gaps “through which a recording device could be positioned to photograph or record patrons inside.”

“To hear that they had not only gaps in the floor, completely open ceiling, reflective floors… it was pretty negligent, the more that I’ve learned," Onder explained.

“Just know your surroundings; if it looks out of place, you should report it,” Josh Wineinger, a detective corporal with Arnold Police, stated.

Wineinger told First Alert 4 he’s dealt with a number of these kinds of cases throughout his career. Sadly, this type of situation is often hard for those victims to stop.

“A majority of the cases I’ve ever worked, they could not have prevented it. It just happened,” Wineinger said. “They were doing the right thing, and they thought they had the expectation of privacy, and unfortunately somebody took advantage of it.”

If you are concerned, however, Wineinger recommends just staying aware of your surroundings, telling someone if you see anything suspicious and always - always - reporting it.

“If something looks out of place - report it, have an employee look at it. If you see something like a camera, don’t touch it - you can report it directly to management and law enforcement,” he explained. “I know people may be embarrassed but it needs to be reported because these people aren’t doing it that one single time.”

Arnold Police arrested Nilsen back in September. He was charged with eight counts of felony invasion of privacy.

Onder just hopes this case brings some more awareness.

“This business and everyone affiliated or tied with it needs to know that this is a problem that we need to remedy,” she stated. “There are people that are going to have lasting impacts.”

First Alert 4 reached out to Xist Fitness several times for a comment on this lawsuit. They did not get back to us.

Onder said if you are a member at Xist Fitness in Arnold and are concerned you may have been a victim, to reach out to her or to the Arnold Police Department.