Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
A South Bend man who allegedly tried to sign out a Edgewood student from school Sept. 26 has been arrested.
Marco Antonio Sanchez-Hernandez, 21, South Bend, is charged with attempted kidnapping, a level 5 felony; possession of child sexual assault material, a level 6 felony; and obstruction of justice, a level 6 felony.
He was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail at 6:18 p.m. Tuesday on a preliminary bond of $5,250, which was increased to $101,000 after charges were modified.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Warsaw Police Department school resource officer Kelly Bradley was made aware of a man attempting to pick up a student. The man, later identified as Sanchez-Hernandez, told school staff he was there to pick up the student and he was a family member.
Upon checking PowerSchool, staff detected Sanchez-Hernandez was not on the list of authorized people to pick up the student. The student’s parent was then contacted. Another school staff member assisted with interpretation as neither Sanchez-Hernandez nor the student spoke English. The parent said they did not know Sanchez-Hernandez and he was not authorized to remove the student from school.
During the conversation with the parent, Sanchez-Hernandez asked the parent if he could take the student for ice cream. The parent said no.
Bradley had Sanchez-Hernandez step outside and asked him for identification and Sanchez-Hernandez provided a Mexican identification card. Sanchez-Hernandez told Bradley he thought the student was 15 and he knew the student from around town.
Bradley talked to the student who said they started messaging with Sanchez-Hernandez on TikTok on Sept. 25. The student said they thought Sanchez-Hernandez was 18 and they were just friends. Bradley asked the student if they still had the messages between themselves and Sanchez-Hernandez and the student said yes. Bradley attempted to review the messages, but they were in Spanish and couldn’t be translated at that time.
Bradley attempted to make contact with the parent, and on Tuesday the parent came to Edgewood Middle School and met with Bradley and turned over the student’s phone for analysis.
On Tuesday, two WPD officers drove to Rochester to attempt to locate Sanchez-Hernandez. The officers connected with him at the Rochester Police Department. Sanchez-Hernandez agreed to be interviewed and traveled back with the officers to Warsaw.
Sanchez-Hernandez’s phone was later collected as evidence.
During the interview, Sanchez-Hernandez said he went to Edgewood to visit a friend, which was the student. He added they started talking on TikTok and he offered to show officers the messages. He admitted to being 21 and stated he thought the student was 15. He said the student gave him the address of the school.
Sanchez-Hernandez said he only wanted to take the student out to eat and he only wanted to spend time with the student. He said he told the office he was the student’s uncle to try to get the student out of school for the day. He stated he spoke with the student on What’s App in addition to TikTok.
Officers learned the conversation between the student and Sanchez-Hernandez had been deleted on both Sanchez-Hernandez’s and the student’s devices. Officers located a message from Sanchez-Hernandez telling the student they both needed to delete all messages from What’s App so they didn’t get into trouble.
On Wednesday, a WPD detective obtained a search warrant to forensically examine the cell phone in Sanchez-Hernandez’s possession. The forensic download was completed at the WPD, but the data extraction wasn’t able to be opened for review. The detective manually searched the phone and located a phone number under the student’s name. The call history showed a missed call at 7:43 p.m. Monday from the student. The detective also located a canceled call logged at 2:03 p.m. Sept. 25 that was outgoing from Sanchez-Hernandez’s phone.
The detective went through the messages on the student’s Instagram account and found a thread where the student refered to Sanchez-Hernandez as Anthony and said he was arranging to pick up the student from school on Sept. 26.
From the student’s phone download, portions of the What’s App conversation were recovered. The original thread was deleted and the student blocked Sanchez-Hernandez prior to law enforcement obtaining possession of either phone. An overview of the recovered messages through What’s App between the student and Sanchez-Hernandez included them getting to know one another and then making a plan when Sanchez-Hernandez picked up the student. There is also a conversation on Monday where the student tells Sanchez-Hernandez they are 14 and Sanchez-Hernandez said he was 21. Sanchez-Hernandez said their ages are OK as long as they are just friends. He told the student he is too young to go to jail. They also arranged a meeting on Oct. 12 at a “jaripeo.”
A jaripeo is a traditional Latin American form of rodeo that includes bull riding, according to a search on Google.
The detective reviewed Sanchez-Hernandez’s image history and located child sexual assault material, specifically multiple images of a nude female child. Officers attempted to identify the child in the images possessed by Sanchez-Hernandez.
The Warsaw Police Department and Warsaw Community Schools issued a joint statement Friday afternoon, saying, “Due to the multiple layers of established school safety protocols, the individual was not able to gain access to students and most importantly students were not in danger.
“The Warsaw Police Department investigators, in collaboration with school resource officers, questioned the male subject, identified as Marco Antonio Sanchez-Hernandez (DOB 07-04-04), who was subsequently detained and charged with attempted kidnapping and other related offenses. Additional charges are currently under active investigation, and no further comment will be provided at this time.
“We are thankful for the strong partnership between Warsaw Community Schools, school resource officers and local law enforcement," the statement concluded.
