teacher kidnaps boy, fucks him in mexico

Teacher Arrested in Mexico, Boy Released

By OSKAR GARCIA

The Associated Press

Saturday, November 3, 2007; 10:35 PM

LEXINGTON, Neb. -- A teacher accused of running away with a 13-year-

old student planned a romantic life with him in his native Mexico, but

she was near broke when they were captured there, authorities said

Saturday.

Their border crossing during a week on the lam may mean the teen, an

illegal immigrant, will not be able to come back to the rural Nebraska

town where he was an eighth-grader.

The boy's relatives told police he had called home asking for money,

leading investigators to a shopping mall in the border city of

Mexicali on Friday. Kelsey Peterson, 25, and Fernando Rodriguez, 13,

were taken into custody without incident in the parking lot.

Peterson, a sixth-grade math teacher and basketball coach at Lexington

Middle School, fled with the boy after police began investigating

whether the pair had an intimate relationship, authorities said. Court

documents said the boy was last seen Oct. 26.

An international hunt was under way after Peterson's car was spotted

crossing into Mexico on Tuesday.

"They didn't have a very well-defined plan, it was basically to

continue driving into Mexico to hide," said Alfredo Arenas, the Baja

California state police official who detained Peterson. "This was a

mutual agreement to flee after the story came out that they were

having sex."

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who may be

victims of sex crimes, but the boy's name had been widely publicized

as police searched for him.

Peterson was turned over to the FBI early Saturday. The boy was turned

over to relatives in Mexicali because he was an illegal immigrant in

the United States and was not allowed to return, Arenas said.

Fernando's uncle, Pedro Raya, said he spoke to the boy Saturday and

they agreed he would go to the family's rural hometown in the southern

state of Guanajuato, mainly because of his immigration status.

"He's OK," said Raya, 47, of Yuma, Ariz. "I just told him to stay over

there in Mexico and the FBI is going to take care of everything."

Dawson County Attorney Elizabeth Waterman said Saturday she knew about

Fernando's immigration status but did not know how it was going to

affect her case against Peterson.

"That's one of the things we need to evaluate so I really don't have

an answer at this time," Waterman said. "I don't know if that

information is completely accurate or if that's subject to change, but

we're dealing with that."

Peterson is charged with kidnapping, child abuse and contributing to

the delinquency of a minor in Nebraska. She's also faces federal

charges of transporting a minor across state lines or a foreign border

for sexual activity, U.S. Attorney Joe Stecher said.

Stecher said he didn't intend to double-prosecute Peterson, and would

work with Waterman to decide in which jurisdiction she would face

charges.

Court documents showed authorities had recovered several e-mails and

letters in which Peterson and the boy professed their affection for

one another.

In letters, the boy called Peterson his "Baby Gurl" and said their

relationship was "just not about the sex but that it was pretty good,"

according to the court documents.

Fernando was an eighth-grader at Lexington Middle School, but district

Superintendent Todd Chessmore said Rodriguez had been in Peterson's

6th-grade math class. He said he placed Peterson on paid

administrative leave on Oct. 25.

Peterson's school-issued laptop contained letters to the student,

including one from April saying she loved him, thought he loved her,

was "100 percent faithful" to him and would always be faithful, the

court documents state.

Laura Rodriguez also said the family believed Peterson gave the boy a

cell phone without his family's knowledge so she could reach him more

easily. There was no response to messages left for a cell phone listed

to a Kelsey Peterson of Lexington.