Joseph Bragg, 28, is charged with one count of kidnapping and one count of criminal sexual conduct, according to court documents.
Bragg allegedly took the girl after she got off her school bus in Zimmerman, Minnesota, around 4 p.m. Authorities found the two in Albert Lea, Minnesota, around 1 a.m. Thursday and took the man into custody.
According to the complaint, the girl’s mother called police after learning that she was not with her father or her grandmother. A neighbor’s doorbell footage showed the girl walking home from the bus stop, and then turning back, out of view.
The mother told police that in December, she had an unusual online interaction with Bragg on Facebook. He had added her, and the two had talked briefly before she blocked him, the complaint states.
During their interaction, Bragg asked whether she had children, and said he wanted children of his own, documents say.
Law enforcement identified Bragg as a suspect, and learned he had access to a rental vehicle. Using cell phone location data, investigators learned that he was traveling south towards Iowa, the criminal complaint says. Shortly thereafter, authorities issued an AMBER alert.
Around midnight on Thursday, an Albert Lea officer saw a white pickup truck at a gas station that matched the vehicle information. He conducted a traffic stop and found the girl in the back seat, charges say.
According to the complaint, investigators learned that Bragg had taken the girl to a hotel in Plymouth, Minnesota. The girl told police that she was in the hotel room with Bragg, and he had sexually assaulted her. Bragg did not provide a statement to law enforcement, the complaint says.
Hundreds of public safety personnel and volunteers aided in searching for the girl.
Armed men attacked a Catholic boarding school in northwestern region of Nigeria and abducted several schoolchildren and staff early Friday. It’s the latest in a spate of abductions in Africa’s most populous country and came just days after 25 schoolgirls were kidnapped in a neighboring state. The latest abduction comes as the country is facing scrutiny from the Trump administration amid ongoing concern about violence against Christians in the West African nation.
The attack and abductions took place at St. Mary’s School in Niger State. Local officials did not immediately disclose the number of students and staff abducted, nor who might be responsible for the attack. Local Nigerian broadcaster Arise TV said 52 schoolchildren were taken.
The Christian Association of Nigeria said Saturday that 303 children and 12 teachers were taken. Most. Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, chairman of the Niger state chapter of CAN, said the total was determined “after a verification exercise and a final census was carried out.”
Nigerian police officials said the abductions took place in the early hours of Friday and that military and security forces have since been deployed to the community. They described St. Mary’s as a secondary school that serves children between the ages of in 12 and 17.
The secretary to the Niger state government, Abubakar Usman, said in a statement that the incident occurred despite prior intelligence warning of heightened threats.
“Regrettably, St. Mary’s School proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities without notifying or seeking clearance from the State Government, thereby exposing pupils and the staff to avoidable risk,” the statement said.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu earlier this week postponed his trip to this weekend’s Group of 20 summit after promising to intensify rescue efforts.
A general view of the school from which school children were kidnapped by gunmen in Kebbi, Nigeria, on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025.
Deeni Jibo/AP
“I am heartbroken by the abduction of our daughters in Kebbi and the painful loss of Brigadier General Musa Uba and the brave soldiers who fell in Borno. Their families, and the families of the kidnapped schoolgirls, are in my prayers,” Tinubu said in a social media post Wednesday. “I have directed the security agencies to act swiftly and bring the girls back to Kebbi State.”
Nigeria was recently thrust into the spotlight after President Trump singled the country out, stating that Christians are being persecuted — an allegation that the Nigerian government rejected.
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, “guns-a-blazing,” to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities. I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth social post earlier this month.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar rejected Mr. Trump’s claims in a post on X earlier this month, saying “Nigeria is a God-fearing country where we respect faith, tolerance, diversity, and inclusion.”
In October, Mr. Trump designated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” in a list of countries that the State Department says have violated religion freedom.
Earlier this week, Tinubu sent his national security adviser and a wider Nigerian delegation to Washington to meet with Trump administration officials and U.S. lawmakers, the Reuters news agency reported Friday.
The White House is considering sanctions and Pentagon engagement on counterterrorism as part of a plan to place pressure on Abuja to better protect Christian communities and religious freedom, a senior U.S. State Department official told Reuters Thursday.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Niger and Kebbi states, but analysts and locals say gangs often target schools, travelers and remote villagers in kidnappings for ransom. Authorities say the gunmen are mostly former herders who have taken up arms against farming communities after clashes between them over strained resources.
Abductions have come to define the insecurity prevailing in Africa’s most populous nation and the painful consequences.
At least 1,500 students have been abducted in the region since Boko Haram jihadi extremists seized 276 Chibok schoolgirls more than a decade ago. But bandits are also active in the region, and analysts say gangs often target schools to gain attention.
Analysts and residents blame the insecurity on a failure to prosecute known attackers and the rampant corruption that limits weapons supplies to security forces while ensuring a steady supply to the gangs.
A satellite view shows the school compound, rectangular in shape, surrounded by a wall and attached to an adjoining primary school, with over 50 classroom and dormitory buildings. It is located on the outskirts of the town of Aguara, near the main Yelwa-Mokwa road.
Police have arrested Jesus Enrique Ramirez Cabrera of Manassas, Virginia, in the abduction of a teenage girl walking to her school bus stop Thursday morning.
Police have arrested a Manassas, Virginia, man in the abduction of a teenage girl walking to her school bus stop Thursday morning.
After “an extensive investigation,” detectives identified Jesus Enrique Ramirez Cabrera, 23, as a suspect and arrested him Friday evening, Manassas police Sgt. Jonathan Casteline said in a news release.
Detectives also conducted a search warrant at a home in the 10000 block of Makelys Way in Manassas in connection with the investigation.
The victim, a high school student, was found by a passerby in distress Thursday morning after she got away by jumping out of the Jeep while her abductor was distracted, the girl’s mother said.
“She told me that she did it regardless of whether she broke a bone,” her mom told InsideNoVa. “She took the risk because she was afraid that she would be raped or murdered. She decided to save her life. She is very afraid, but she is safe at home with me.”
InsideNoVa is not releasing the victim’s age, the mother’s name or the school the girl attends to protect her identity.
Ramirez Cabrera faces charges of abduction, robbery, impersonating a police officer and petty larceny, police said. The victim’s mother told InsideNoVa the attacker took her daughter’s things when he grabbed her on Clover Hill Road.
Ramirez Cabrera was held without bond at the Prince William-Manassas regional jail.
“At this time detectives do not believe any other suspects were involved in this incident and there is no ongoing threat to the community,” the release said.
The investigation is ongoing and would like to talk to anyone with information. Contact the Manassas City Police Department at 703-257-8000 or the 24/7 Crime Solvers Tip Line at 703-330-0330.
A former Washington state police officer wanted in two killings has been found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound following a chase in Oregon, authorities said Tuesday. His 1-year-old baby was taken safely into custody by Oregon State Patrol troopers.The troopers began chasing ex-Yakima officer Elias Huizar when they saw him driving southbound on Interstate 5 near Eugene, Oregon, at about 3 p.m. Tuesday. Huizar sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head; his condition was unknown, the West Richland Police Department said in a Facebook post.This is a breaking news update. AP’s earlier story follows below:A former Washington state police officer who court documents say had a child with a teenage girl he met through a school resource program was on the run Tuesday after killing two people, including his ex-wife, who had recently obtained a protection order against him, authorities said.The Washington State Patrol late Monday issued an alert that the ex-Yakima officer, Elias Huizar, had fled with 1-year-old Roman Huizar. Huizar, 39, had a baby of that age with the 17-year-old former student, who lived with him as of early this year, court records show. Authorities said Huizar might be headed to Mexico.The alert came after the West Richland Police Department responded Monday afternoon to a shooting outside Wiley Elementary School. Officers found Amber Rodriguez, 31, Huizar’s ex-wife and the mother of their two sons, shot eight times near the school bus parking lot, according to a probable cause statement filed in Benton County Superior Court on Monday.Investigators went to Huizar’s home and found a second victim. The Washington State Patrol identified that victim as Huizar’s girlfriend, but police Tuesday declined to provide further information or confirm if it was the teenage girl who had been living with him.The former couple’s 9-year-old son told officers that “he observed his father, Elias Huizar, shoot his mother,” the documents say. Rodriguez worked at the school, while Huizar had recently worked as a substitute teacher in the Richland School District, the district confirmed in a Facebook post Tuesday.According to court filings earlier this year, Huizar met the girl as a school resource officer in Yakima. She was 11 when they met, and 15 when he impregnated her, Rodriguez wrote in seeking a protection order against him.The Yakima Police Department said in a Facebook post Tuesday that Huizar left the department in 2021 “after receiving discipline.” It did not provide any other information.In February, the teen reported to police that Huizar sexually assaulted a 16-year-old friend, who had passed out at their house. Huizar was charged with rape of both the teen and her friend. He was out on bail pending trial, authorities said.Rodriguez wrote in her petition for a protection order that her divorce from Huizar became final last year, and she had not been aware that he was having a relationship with the same teen he had met as a resource officer until he was charged with rape.She said she feared for the safety of her children, and said she would be seeking a modification of their parenting plan. She filed for the modification last Friday, court records show. The protection order was issued in February and was to remain in effect for a year; under it, he was barred from possessing firearms.The Richland School District said it terminated Huizar’s employment following his arrest in February. It said it had received recommendations from the Yakima School District before hiring him in 2022, and that he had passed background checks.“We are extremely disheartened that information about Mr. Huizar’s past was not disclosed to us through the various processes we have in place to vet RSD candidates for employment,” the district said. “It is the expectation for individuals who apply for employment with RSD to be forthcoming and truthful in their applications.”Police say Huizar initially fled in a 2009 silver Toyota Corolla with Washington license plates CBZ4745.
WEST RICHLAND, Wash. —
A former Washington state police officer wanted in two killings has been found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound following a chase in Oregon, authorities said Tuesday. His 1-year-old baby was taken safely into custody by Oregon State Patrol troopers.
The troopers began chasing ex-Yakima officer Elias Huizar when they saw him driving southbound on Interstate 5 near Eugene, Oregon, at about 3 p.m. Tuesday. Huizar sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head; his condition was unknown, the West Richland Police Department said in a Facebook post.
This is a breaking news update. AP’s earlier story follows below:
A former Washington state police officer who court documents say had a child with a teenage girl he met through a school resource program was on the run Tuesday after killing two people, including his ex-wife, who had recently obtained a protection order against him, authorities said.
The Washington State Patrol late Monday issued an alert that the ex-Yakima officer, Elias Huizar, had fled with 1-year-old Roman Huizar. Huizar, 39, had a baby of that age with the 17-year-old former student, who lived with him as of early this year, court records show. Authorities said Huizar might be headed to Mexico.
The alert came after the West Richland Police Department responded Monday afternoon to a shooting outside Wiley Elementary School. Officers found Amber Rodriguez, 31, Huizar’s ex-wife and the mother of their two sons, shot eight times near the school bus parking lot, according to a probable cause statement filed in Benton County Superior Court on Monday.
Investigators went to Huizar’s home and found a second victim. The Washington State Patrol identified that victim as Huizar’s girlfriend, but police Tuesday declined to provide further information or confirm if it was the teenage girl who had been living with him.
The former couple’s 9-year-old son told officers that “he observed his father, Elias Huizar, shoot his mother,” the documents say. Rodriguez worked at the school, while Huizar had recently worked as a substitute teacher in the Richland School District, the district confirmed in a Facebook post Tuesday.
According to court filings earlier this year, Huizar met the girl as a school resource officer in Yakima. She was 11 when they met, and 15 when he impregnated her, Rodriguez wrote in seeking a protection order against him.
The Yakima Police Department said in a Facebook post Tuesday that Huizar left the department in 2021 “after receiving discipline.” It did not provide any other information.
In February, the teen reported to police that Huizar sexually assaulted a 16-year-old friend, who had passed out at their house. Huizar was charged with rape of both the teen and her friend. He was out on bail pending trial, authorities said.
Rodriguez wrote in her petition for a protection order that her divorce from Huizar became final last year, and she had not been aware that he was having a relationship with the same teen he had met as a resource officer until he was charged with rape.
She said she feared for the safety of her children, and said she would be seeking a modification of their parenting plan. She filed for the modification last Friday, court records show. The protection order was issued in February and was to remain in effect for a year; under it, he was barred from possessing firearms.
The Richland School District said it terminated Huizar’s employment following his arrest in February. It said it had received recommendations from the Yakima School District before hiring him in 2022, and that he had passed background checks.
“We are extremely disheartened that information about Mr. Huizar’s past was not disclosed to us through the various processes we have in place to vet RSD candidates for employment,” the district said. “It is the expectation for individuals who apply for employment with RSD to be forthcoming and truthful in their applications.”
Police say Huizar initially fled in a 2009 silver Toyota Corolla with Washington license plates CBZ4745.
A manhunt is underway out of Washington state after a man suspected of two murders fled the area with a young child. Police in the city of West Richland, near the Washington-Oregon line, are searching for 40-year-old Elias Huizar. Police said Huizar is a suspect in the shooting death of a woman on the grounds of Wiley Elementary School in West Richland Monday afternoon. While searching for Huizar, police found a second crime scene at a home where another woman was found dead. According to local reports, Huizar is a former police officer in Yakima who was expected in court Monday on allegations he raped a teenage girl.An Amber Alert has been issued for 1-year-old Roman Huizar. The Amber Alert posting said Elias Huizar was a suspect in the death of his ex-wife and girlfriend. It did not specify the relationship between the man and the child. Huizar is possibly headed to Mexico, officials said. Roman Huizar is described as having brown hair and brown eyes. He is 2 feet tall and weighs 25 pounds. Elias Huizar is described as 5 feet, six inches tall, with brown hair and brown eyes, weighing 170 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black hat, a black long-sleeved shirt, light blue jeans and black shoes. Police say he’s believed to be traveling in a silver 2009 Toyota Corolla with Washington plates CBZ4745.Police said he should be considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the West Richland Washington Police Department at 509-628-0333.
A manhunt is underway out of Washington state after a man suspected of two murders fled the area with a young child.
Police in the city of West Richland, near the Washington-Oregon line, are searching for 40-year-old Elias Huizar. Police said Huizar is a suspect in the shooting death of a woman on the grounds of Wiley Elementary School in West Richland Monday afternoon.
While searching for Huizar, police found a second crime scene at a home where another woman was found dead.
According to local reports, Huizar is a former police officer in Yakima who was expected in court Monday on allegations he raped a teenage girl.
An Amber Alert has been issued for 1-year-old Roman Huizar. The Amber Alert posting said Elias Huizar was a suspect in the death of his ex-wife and girlfriend. It did not specify the relationship between the man and the child. Huizar is possibly headed to Mexico, officials said.
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Roman Huizar is described as having brown hair and brown eyes. He is 2 feet tall and weighs 25 pounds.
Elias Huizar is described as 5 feet, six inches tall, with brown hair and brown eyes, weighing 170 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black hat, a black long-sleeved shirt, light blue jeans and black shoes. Police say he’s believed to be traveling in a silver 2009 Toyota Corolla with Washington plates CBZ4745.
Police said he should be considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the West Richland Washington Police Department at 509-628-0333.
SHERBURNE COUNTY, Minn. — A 42-year-old man has pleaded guilty to the abduction of his young son and a subsequent standoff with police last summer in central Minnesota.
According to court documents filed Thursday in Sherburne County, Scott Henrikson entered a guilty plea to kidnapping and domestic abuse no contact order charges in the July 29 incident. As part of his plea agreement, charges of theft of a motor vehicle and domestic assault will be dropped.
According to the criminal complaint, a woman told police that Henrikson punched her in the stomach while she was driving with their 2-year-old son in Becker on July 29. She says the boy started to scream, and Henrikson then hit the boy’s legs.
The woman, who has sole custody of the boy, stopped the vehicle and got out to get help. Henrikson then got into the driver’s seat and sped off on Highway 10 with the boy, leading to an AMBER Alert.
In the early morning hours of July 30, law enforcement were called to a home in Baxter on a tip that Henrikson and the boy were barricaded inside a garage. When officers arrived, they looked into the garage and saw Henrikson inside the vehicle.
Police say Henrikson ignored the commands of law enforcement to come out. A perimeter was then set up around the neighborhood and the garage was surrounded.
After a lengthy standoff, the Crow Wing County tactical response team entered the garage and rescued the boy. Henrickson was also taken into custody.
Henrikson had active arrest warrants out for him at the time of the standoff. His criminal history includes a domestic assault conviction from 2022.
According to the plea agreement, Henrikson agreed to a sentence of 70 months, nearly six years, in prison. He will also need to register as a predatory offender. His official sentencing is scheduled for April 25.
Cole Premo is a web producer at WCCO.com. For more than a decade, he’s been covering breaking news and weather, daily topics, stories from the Native community and more in Minnesota.
MINNEAPOLIS — Update: The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal apprehension has confirmed that Ethan Stately has been found and Jennifer Stately has been taken into custody.
Previous Reporting:
The Red Lake Tribal Police Department is searching for missing 3-year-old Ethan Stately. Authorities describe Ethan as a Native American boy with brown eyes and brown hair.
MN BCA
Police believe 36-year-old Jennifer Marie Stately, abducted him. She was last seen driving a 2012 Black Chevrolet Equinox with a Red Lake tribal license on it.
Police say that Jennifer Stately is about 5 feet, 6 inches tall and has brown eyes and brown hair.
MN BCA
If anyone has seen or knows where Jennifer Stately is they are encouraged to call the Red Lake Tribal Police Department at 218-679-3313. Police say that if you see her, please don’t take action but contact police as soon as possible.
Chloe is a journalist at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis and has worked in numerous positions at the station, including Assignment Editor, Digital Line Producer and Web Producer. She started her career at WCCO in 2015.
A woman accused of abducting eight children from their foster homes in Arkansas was arrested Saturday in California, after a concerned citizen saw the woman and six of the children in a parking lot at 12:30 a.m. and requested a welfare check.
The caller said the woman was “displaying bizarre behavior” in the parking lot outside of a Mexican restaurant, according to a news release from California’s Anderson Police Department.
Officers responded and identified the woman as 36-year-old Trista Fullerton, who was wanted on a felony warrant related to the children’s disappearance. A white Dodge pickup truck with Arkansas plates was found nearby.
Officers say Trista Fullerton was linked to this white Dodge pickup truck with Arkansas plates.
Anderson Police Department
Fullerton is the biological mother of the children, but she’s accused of kidnapping them from their foster placements after she lost her custodial rights.
Upon being taken into custody, Fullerton shared the location of the two children who weren’t in the parking lot, police said. The pair were located at a residence in Shasta County.
All eight of the children were released to Shasta County’s children and family services to be reunified with their guardians in Arkansas.
Fullerton, meanwhile, has been booked into the Shasta County Jail, police said.
Colleen Nick, the CEO of the Morgan Nick Foundation, an Arkansas nonprofit that supports the parents and families of missing children and adults, told Arkansas’ 40/29 News that the kids have undoubtedly been through a harrowing ordeal.
“It’s not a safe situation for the children,” Nick told the outlet. “Plus they’ve been taken very suddenly from everyone they know so everything has dramatically changed for them.”
A delivery driver suspected in the murder of a 7-year-old girl in North Texas told investigators that he accidentally struck her with his van prior to strangling her, according to an arrest warrant.
The suspect, 31-year-old Tanner Lynn Horner, told Wise County Sheriff’s detectives that he was backing up a FedEx truck when he struck 7-year-old Athena Strand last Wednesday, per an arrest warrant obtained Thursday by CBS DFW.
Horner told investigators that, after hitting Strand, he panicked and placed her inside the truck, the arrest warrant reads. He also told police that, after hitting her, Strand was not seriously hurt and was “alive” and “talking to him,” according to the warrant.
He told detectives he then killed Strand because “she was going to tell her father about being hit by the FedEx truck,” the warrant states.
An undated photo of 7-year-old Athena Strand, who went missing from a home in Paradise, Texas, on Nov. 30, 2022. Her body was found two days later, on Dec. 2.
Maitlyn Gandy/Facebook
According to the warrant, Horner said that he initially tried to break Strand’s neck, but when that failed, he strangled her.
Strand was reported missing from her father and stepmother’s home in Paradise, Texas, on Nov. 30 prompting a massive search. Two days later, according to the warrant, Horner led investigators to her body in the Wise County town of Boyd, located about 10 miles from Paradise.
A contract driver for FedEx, Horner had delivered a package to the house at about the same time Strand disappeared, Wise County Sheriff’s officials had previously reported.
In a news conference Thursday in Decatur, Texas, Strand’s mother, Maitlyn Gandy, who resides in Oklahoma, said that the delivery was Strand’s Christmas present.
“The packages contained, ‘You Can Be Anything’ Barbies,” Gandy told reporters. “Athena was robbed of the opportunity to grow up to be anything she wanted to be. And this present, ordered out of innocence and love, is one she will never receive.”
Gandy also said that she was supposed to bring Strand “back home to Oklahoma after Christmas break.”
The warrant states that after Strand’s disappearance, investigators worked with Big Topspin, the contracting company hired by FedEx to deliver packages, to determine “which van and driver had made the delivery.”
The van was equipped with cameras that captured footage of the suspect placing a girl who fit Strand’s description in the van, the warrant reads.
When investigators located and interviewed Horner, he confessed to them that Strand was dead, the warrant said.
Horner, of Lake Worth, Texas, is being held on capital murder and aggravated kidnapping charges. His bail has been set at $1.5 million. He has no criminal history.
Paradise is located in the Dallas-Forth Worth-Arlington metro area, about 40 miles northwest of Fort Worth.
