A criminal on the run for months from charges that he sexually abused a young girl in central Minnesota for many years had a touch of frostbite when he was caught after crashing his vehicle in a ditch, authorities said.
Brian S. Schmitz, 43, of Willmar, Minn., was apprehended Wednesday about 9:15 a.m., more than four hours after a Kandiyohi County sheriff's deputy spotted a vehicle in a ditch off a private drive about 7 miles north of Willmar, the Sheriff's Office said.
Footprints in the snow from the vehicle led the deputy to a nearby home and then to an open field, according to the Sheriff's Office.
With the help of county rescue personnel and an ATV, Schmitz was found near Solomon Lake, 3 to 4 miles from his vehicle, said Sheriff Daniel Hartog.
Schmitz was taken by ambulance to Rice Hospital in Willmar, treated for a modest amount of frostbite and then jailed.
A warrant was out for Schmitz's arrest on charges of failing to pay child support and first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Schmitz was charged in Stearns County in October with sexually abusing a girl in a Lynden Township home starting when she was 5 and continuing until last May when she was 13.
The complaint said a woman who is the mother of his two children said Schmitz had been living out of his car.
