Teacher Arrested in Mexico, Boy Released

[Ghost in the Machine]

Teacher Arrested in Mexico, Boy Released
Published: 11/3/07, 8:05 AM EDT
By OSKAR GARCIA

LEXINGTON, Neb. (AP) - A female schoolteacher was arrested in Mexico on Saturday and the 13-year-old boy she allegedly ran away with was turned over to his relatives, a prosecutor said.

Kelsey Peterson, a 25-year-old sixth-grade math teacher and basketball coach at Lexington Middle School, was arrested in Mexicali, a city on the border with California, Dawson County Attorney Elizabeth Waterman said.

The pair were found and apprehended by Mexican authorities without incident just after 3:30 a.m. EDT. Peterson was in FBI custody and transported back to the U.S., and the boy was released to relatives who had traveled to Mexico, Waterman said.

"I'm really relieved, especially that the individuals are well and unharmed," Waterman said.

Peterson and the boy fled after police began investigating whether the pair had an intimate relationship, authorities said. Court documents said the boy was last seen Oct. 26.

http://www.att.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=7814&eeid=5500861&_sitecat=1522&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=2&ck=&ch=ne

[Omaha Steve]

1. Photo of the "couple" and more story

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10174962



Published Saturday | November 3, 2007
Boy's kin suspected relationship
BY CHRISTOPHER BURBACH AND PAUL HAMMEL
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS

As the search stretched into Mexico Friday for teacher Kelsey Peterson and student Fernando Rodriguez, his aunt Laura Rodriguez said in a telephone interview from Lexington that his family had suspected an inappropriate relationship for up to a year.

Fernando was 12 and in seventh grade at Lexington Middle School when their suspicions first surfaced. Peterson had been one of his sixth-grade teachers the year before.

Fernando previously had done "all right" in school, his aunt said. He had been a quiet, normal child.

"He's like any other kid," Rodriguez said. "He likes music, playing video games, playing around, a normal kid, except . . ."

Then, at some point in the past year — Rodriguez didn't recall exactly when — it seemed that Fernando wasn't the same child anymore.

FULL story at link.