A 13-year-old student with whom a middle school teacher is accused of fleeing to create a romantic life in the boy's native Mexico may be required to stay there.
An illegal immigrant while residing in the United States, 13-year-old Fernando Rodriguez may not be able to return to the rural town in the U.S. state of Nebraska where he was an eighth-grade student.
Kelsey Peterson, 25, and Rodriguez were taken into custody without incident after 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.
Peterson, a 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 began 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, Arizona. "I just told him to stay over there in Mexico and the FBI is going to take care of everything."
Peterson is charged with kidnapping, child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Nebraska. She also faces federal charges of transporting a minor across state lines or a foreign border for sexual activity, U.S. Attorney Joe Stecher said.
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.
