Authorities in Fond du Lac Investigate Complex Crime Scheme Involving Nicaraguan National Paying for Time Alone with Minor

OAKFIELD, Wis.  – On Sunday, a Nicaraguan man who came to the United States illegally in 2021 was arrested after a 12-year-old girl escaped his grasp and called for help.

The Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office says that on Sunday, May 19, just before 12:15 a.m., deputies were sent to a private home in the town of Oakfield because someone had reported sexual assault.

The caller lived in the area and said a 12-year-old girl had just come to his door asking for help. She allegedly ran away from a car in the area where an adult man had bound and blindfolded her and was trying to attack her.

With courage, she fought back, got away from the suspect and the car, and ran to the house to get help. Because of the nature of the accusations, police found out who the suspect was and where he was, and they made a plan for how to catch him.

A SWAT team arrested the person they thought was responsible during a search warrant on Marquette Street on Monday night.

Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt said, “This investigation is complicated and involves many serious possible crimes, such as sexual assault of a child, false imprisonment, child human trafficking, failure to protect a child, and others.”

It is said that the suspect paid the mother of the victim, whom he knew, to spend time with the victim alone. Detectives from the sheriff’s office have found that the suspect in the attack is a Nicaraguan guy between the ages of 30 and 31 who came to the United States illegally from Mexico into Texas in October 2021.

At that point, he was caught by US Customs and Border Protection agents, taken to a federal facility to be processed, and then released with directions on how to follow current federal immigration law.

Detectives are still trying to figure out if the victim’s mother is a legal immigrant. She was arrested at the Fond du Lac County Jail and is being held there for a number of crimes linked to the incident.

The victim, a girl, and her siblings have all been taken into protective care and are safe. When the suspects are officially charged, more information about this case will be made public in a criminal lawsuit.