ANGELA TSCHIDA - 14 yo - Cottage Grove (SE of Minneapolis) MN

Cottage Grove MN ---- Cottage Grove police are looking for a
14-year-old girl they think ran away with a 37-year-old man and she may
be in danger. Angela Tschida disappeared on July 2. She's believed to be with Alexius Justin McMullin. "She’s
an innocent, 14-year-old,” said Tschida’s mom, Bridgette. “She likes to
act tough. She likes to talk tough but she is a very innocent, naive
14-year-old."


Tschida met McMullin last year when he dating her
mom. After that relationship ended McMullin and Tschida secretly became a
couple. The family and police are concerned because of
McMullin’s violent past. Police say in 2008, they took a report that
McMullin sexually assaulted his girlfriend and threatened her with a
samurai sword. He was arrested and prosecuted. McMullin is a registered
sex offender with a history of violent crimes.
Police say McMullin is savvy with computers and has left no trail. On the day Tschida left, she sent text messages to some friends but has not been heard from in nearly three weeks. Tschida’s friends have created a Facebook page, to let her know how much they love her, to let her know how much they miss her. Police ask you call 911 if you have any information on Tschida’s whereabouts.

Sleeping pills and keeping busy are a Cottage Grove mother’s
antidotes to the stress of not knowing her 14-year-old daughter’s
whereabouts, and fearing she’s with a man more than twice her age who
has violent crimes in his past.Brigette Tschida, whose daughter
Angela Tschida hasn’t been heard from since July 2, said she doesn’t
like the limelight, but she hopes media attention to the case might
allow her daughter to see something that convinces her to come home.“He may be saying that nobody cares, but that’s the farthest thing (from the truth),” Brigette Tschida said.Tschida
and police suspect that Angela is somewhere in the southwest United
States with Alexius J. McMullin, 36, who Brigette Tschida dated from
about October of 2008 through June of 2009. She met him through another
daughter who was friends with McMullin’s daughter when both girls were
in third grade.

“I met him that way, and his dog had had puppies and we had gotten a puppy from them,” Tschida said. She
knew McMullin faced charges of allegedly threatening and sexually
assaulting his ex-girlfriend, but she had only heard his side of the
story, and he was never abusive or violent with her.“He would say that everybody around him was the problem,” Tschida said.When
he went to jail in June of 2009, she viewed the case file on the
assault and read his ex-girlfriend’s victim’s statement. She realized
what McMullin had told her “wasn’t adding up.” Tschida had no
idea her daughter was in contact with McMullin until Nov. 30 of last
year, when Angela punched her as she tried to take her cell phone away
from her. First Tschida went to the clinic to get stitches in her lip,
and next she went to Cottage Grove Middle School to speak with her
daughter’s counselor. “Nothing like that had ever happened
before,” she said. “I was still, at that point, concerned about her
because it was so beyond what I expected.”That’s when she
discovered the reason her daughter had reacted so strongly. The phone
contained text messages between her daughter and McMullin that
“definitely” suggested they had a romantic relationship, Tschida said.
She turned the phone over to police.Katie Golder, a friend of
Angela’s who said they met playing soccer, said she knew about the
relationship between the teenager and McMullin a few months before her
mother found out.“She thought he was cute and stuff, and that’s
it really,” Golder said. “She thought he would take care of her when she
got older.”Angela would use her as a cover, Golder said, telling
her parents she was staying over at her house, but then going to
Minneapolis to stay with McMullin instead, she said. As far as she knew,
McMullin was never violent with Angela, Golder said.“I thought she shouldn’t be doing it, because he’s 36 and that’s way too old,” she said. Once
Angela’s parents found out about the relationship, Golder thought that
was the end of it. Angela didn’t talk about it after that, she said.Golder
suspects Angela decided to run away because of a misguided notion that
her family would be better off without her, she said.“She thinks
that her family doesn’t care about her,” Golder said. “I don’t know why
she would run away, because her family loves her.”The past year
has been tough for the Tschida family, Brigette Tschida said. Last June
she and Angela’s father separated, and the family moved twice in the
last year — from their home that had been foreclosed on, to a rental
home, and then to an apartment, she said.Still, the family of five kids ages 7 through 16 and Tschida had fun together, she said. “We had our moments, but not enough that I would have seen this one coming,” she said.The night before Angela left, she, along with her friend, sister and mom all went to see “Eclipse” together. “We were laughing and joking and we had a good time,” Tschida said. The
next morning when Angela was gone, Tschida figured she was probably
just with a friend. She sent her a few text messages to find out where
she was, and after she didn’t get a reply, went to look at her computer
and found she had deleted everything from it. Then she found a letter
from Angela, telling her that she would be safe, that she needed to be
free and that she would see her again one day.Now, Tschida just hopes all of those things are true. Family
and friends of Angela Tschida are planning a candlelight vigil in hope
of her safe return at 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 28, at Kingston Park in
Cottage Grove.

Angela M. Tschida, the 14-year-old Cottage Grove girl who police
think left town with a 36-year-old sex offender, gave friends no
indication she was troubled or planning to run, said friend Cole
Bertram.“She seemed normal,” Bertram said. “She seemed happy.”
Bertram said Tschida had a lot of friends and was in frequent contact with them before she left.
“I have a text from her almost every day saying ‘Hey, what’s up,’ or
‘Hey, what are you doing?’” Bertram said.That’s why it was obvious when the
text messages stopped July 1. On July 2, Tschida, left town without a trace.
Police believe she is with Alexius J. McMullin, who used to date Tschida’s mother.Bertram
said he was shocked to hear Tschida left with McMullin because he
remembers that last fall at the Cottage Grove Middle School lunch table
she called McMullin “a creep” who tried to kill his ex-girlfriend.
“She tried to make him look like she didn’t like him at all,” he said.Bertram
had no idea Tschida had any relationship with McMullin, he said. When
Tschida first went missing, Bertram said he wasn’t overly worried
because she had run away from home before.“She would always find
her way back home,” Bertram said. “She wouldn’t go far, just to the
surrounding cities to a friend’s house.”The longest she was gone
before was about three days, he said. Now that it’s been three weeks
since anyone’s heard from Tschida, Bertram’s scared, he said.
“My fear is that she’s been sexually abused and that she’s hurt somewhere,” Bertram said.
Friends and family of Tschida are consoling each other through a Facebook Page Bertram created.
He said his message to Tschida is, “please come home, give us a call, just let us know that you’re OK.”
Police believe Tschida went with McMullin voluntarily.Since
she went missing, police have been talking to friends, doing forensics
on the family’s computer and following other leads, said Cottage Grove
Police Department Detective Tom Ueland. They decided to publicly release
the information about the disappearance when they became confident she
was with McMullin, he said.McMullin is computer savvy, and has
done some computer programming work, Ueland said. Neither computer
trails, nor cell phone signals have given the police clues about where
the two are, he said.“She has hidden all of her tracks,” Ueland said.
Police believe the two might be somewhere in the southwest United States, he said.Tschida
goes by the nickname “Angi” and she is 5 feet 9 inches tall and 160
pounds. Her navel is pierced and she has blonde highlights in her hair,
according to a Cottage Grove Police Department press release.McMullin
was convicted of sexually assaulting and threatening his ex-girlfriend
at his mother’s Cottage Grove home in May of 2008.In that
incident, on May 2, 2008, he allegedly threatened the woman with a
samurai sword, and pushed his thumbs on her esophagus, cutting off her
airway for several seconds, according to a Washington County Court
Complaint.He then allegedly raped the woman, during which he
threatened to kill her and her family if she told the police, the
complaint says.He was on probation for his conviction related to
that incident, but the courts were set to consider revoking his
probation in September 2009, said Washington County Attorney Doug
Johnson. He apparently began hiding from police sometime between then
and January of this year, when a warrant was issued for his arrest,
Johnson said.Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension records show that
McMullin was convicted of robbery with a deadly weapon in Panama City,
Fla., in 1993, according to the complaint.Hennepin County also
has a warrant out for his arrest. He was convicted of fourth-degree DWI
and careless driving in Hennepin County in 2006.Anyone with
information that might be helpful to police should contact Washington
County Communications at (651) 439-9381, Detective Tom Ueland at (651)
458-6012 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.

One phone call ended more than three weeks of silence and stress for
the mother of a Cottage Grove 14-year-old runaway who turned up in Las
Vegas on Friday, but police are still searching for the convicted sex
offender she might have been with.
Brigette Tschida said her daughter, Angela Tschida, called her about
10:30 p.m. Friday from a Greyhound bus station in Las Vegas. It was the
first she had heard from her since she ran away July 2.
"I probably could have run from here to Vegas on energy alone," Tschida said.
After calling her mom, Angela found a security guard. Las Vegas
police then placed her in a shelter, where she is waiting for a flight
back to Minnesota in the next few days, said Cottage Grove Detective Tom
Ueland.
Police said Alexius Justin McMullin, 36, is a person of interest in the case.
McMullin was convicted in March 2009 of making terroristic threats.
His ex-girlfriend accused him of hitting and choking her, threatening
her with a samurai sword and sexually assaulting her, Ueland said. He
was last known to be serving his probation in a Minneapolis halfway
house.
Brigette Tschida said she had been in a relationship with McMullin,
but after they broke up he began contacting her daughter, unbeknown to
her.
Ueland said police tried to speak with McMullin in December after
Tschida found out about his relationship with her daughter and called
them, but he fled. He said McMullin is possibly somewhere in the
southwestern United States.
Washington and Hennepin counties each have warrants for McMullin's arrest, Ueland said.
Meanwhile, Tschida is anxiously waiting for her daughter to come home, which is both exciting and stressful.
"The road doesn't end," she said. "It's just another chapter."

The 14-year-old Cottage
Grove girl who is believed to have run away with a registered sex
offender three weeks ago has been found safe in Las Vegas.
Now authorities are trying to determine how Angela Tschida got there.

Her mother, Brigette Tschida, said Monday that the teenager
called her Friday night and told her she had hitchhiked the 1,664 miles
to Nevada by herself.

"She said she was at the Greyhound bus station and was out of money and wanted to come home," Tschida said.

"She said she was by herself. I don't think she was, but until she actually is physically home, we are just going with that."

Police say they believe the teen left Cottage Grove on July 2
with Alexius Justin McMullin, 37, who is wanted by authorities in
Hennepin and Washington counties, said city police investigator Tom
Ueland.

The girl knew McMullin because he was her mother's former
boyfriend, Ueland said. "I suspect the two of them had a significant
relationship for months," he said.

The teen told police she had been hitchhiking "and had never been
with (McMullin) and didn't know where he was," Ueland said. "She said
people were helping her out along the way by giving her money. I don't
believe it, but that's what she said."

Her mother said she told her daughter when she called to ask the Greyhound ticket agent to call police.

The girl was being held at a facility for runaway teens in Las Vegas and was expected to return home today or Wednesday.

I've talked to her each day," Tschida said. "She's bored where she's at, and she's ready to get home."

Tschida said she plans to have a long talk with her daughter once she's home.

"I don't think she realized that people were looking for her,"
she said. "I really think she thought that nobody cared. I will
definitely be sitting down for a family talk, but there will also be
therapy and all that ... to get her on the right path."

Police still were looking for McMullin, who was registered as a
sex offender in 2008 after he attacked an ex-girlfriend with a samurai
sword at a house in Cottage Grove and sexually assaulted her, according
to a criminal complaint filed in Washington County District Court.

McMullin also spent time in a Florida prison for armed robbery in 1993, according to court records.

Authorities believe McMullin is in the Southwest, Ueland said.

Investigators asked for the public's help locating the missing
girl last week after they determined she was with McMullin and thought
she might be in danger, Ueland said.

Brigette Tschida said she dated McMullin for a few months in 2009
but broke up with him after she learned about his criminal background.
"There were things that were not adding up," she said.

She later discovered — by checking her daughter's text messages —
that she and McMullin were involved in a relationship, she said. She
reported him to police, and police have been looking for him since
December, Ueland said.

"When she reported it to police, he fled," Ueland said. "That's why the warrants were issued."

Anyone with information about McMullin's whereabouts were asked to call Ueland at 651-458-6012.

Tschida said she hopes McMullin is arrested soon.

"I'm hoping they catch him, but getting her back, that's the
priority for me," she said. "I don't know that she wasn't in danger
during (the past three weeks), but she's safe now, and that helps. We're
on to the next chapter."

The wanted sex offender who police think accompanied a Cottage Grove
runaway teen was arrested in Albuquerque, N.M., Wednesday, said U.S.
Marshal Deputy Thomas Volk.Alexius J. McMullin, 36, is
wanted in Washington and Hennepin counties and could face federal
charges related to his alleged role in the teenager’s disappearance,
Volk said. He was arrested at an apartment building without incident,
Volk said.Police believe McMullin was with a 14-year-old
girl who was missing for three weeks in July until she turned herself in
at a Las Vegas Greyhound bus station. McMullin had dated the girl’s
mother.McMullin was arrested on an extraditable Hennepin County charge of failure to register as a sex offender, Volk said.An extradition hearing in New Mexico will determine whether and when McMullin will be brought back to Minnesota, he said.McMullin
was convicted in Washington County of sexually assaulting and
threatening his ex-girlfriend at his mother’s Cottage Grove home in May
of 2008.A warrant for his arrest related to that case was issued in January, as he faced revocation of his probation.Minnesota
Bureau of Apprehension records show that McMullin was convicted of
robbery with a deadly weapon in Panama City, Fla., in June of 1993,
according to a Washington County District Court complaint.