Escapee faces another charge

• Oscar Herrera-Menjivar

Oscar Herrera-Menjivar

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The man who escaped from an inmate transit van near Spencer this summer now faces an additional count of sexually assaulting a child.

There are two warrants out for Oscar Antonio Herrera-Menjivar and a third is “in the works,” according to Detective Tim Flohrschutz of the Omaha, Neb., Metro Fugitive Task Force.

Herrera-Menjivar was arrested June 25 in Florida.

He was charged with the May 25 first-degree sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl whom he allegedly met on Facebook.

Herrera-Menjivar left Nebraska for Florida shortly after the girl reported the crime to authorities, but he was captured in Florida.

While he was aboard a van operated by the Inmate Services Corp., of West Memphis, Ark., which was transferring prisoners in the region, he escaped when it stopped at an interstate convenience store near Spencer.

Law enforcement officials from Turner, McCook, Hutchinson and Minnehaha counties; the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation; the U.S. Marshals Service; the South Dakota Highway Patrol and the Sioux Falls Police Department all searched for him.

While there were two sightings of a man believed to be Herrera-Menjivar in eastern South Dakota, he was not found by authorities. He has since been spotted in the Omaha area twice, but Flohrschutz said he feels Herrera-Menjivar has left the area.

While the search continues, additional investigation identified two more victims, the detective said. Both were girls, one 12, the other 14.

The alleged assaults took place before Herrera-Menjivar, 31, fled Nebraska in June. He also met them via social media and through befriending young people, according to Flohrschutz.

Herrera-Menjivar now faces two counts of sexual assault of a minor, Flohrschutz said, with a third count “pending.”

Tags: sex abuse, news, updates, crime, escape