Police seek missing 14-year-old believed to be with sex offender

A 14-year-old Cottage Grove girl is missing, and police think she might have left the state with a registered sex offender who has a rap sheet that includes violent crimes.

Police are seeking information on the whereabouts of Angela Margaret Tschida, who they believe is with Alexius J. McMullin, 36. Police believe she left with McMullin, a friend of her family, voluntarily. She has been missing since July 2.

Since then, police have been talking to friends, doing forensics on the family's computer and following other leads, said Cottage Grove Police Department Detective Tom Ueland. They decided to publicly release the information about the disappearance when they became confident she was in the company of McMullin, he said.

McMullin is computer savvy, and has done some computer programming work, Ueland said. Neither Facebook nor cell phone signals have given the police clues on where the two are, he said.

"She has hidden all of her tracks," Ueland said.

Police believe the two might be somewhere in the Southwest, he said.

McMullin was charged in May of 2008 with allegedly sexually assaulting and threatening his ex-girlfriend at his mother’s Cottage Grove home.

In that incident, on May 2, 2008, he allegedly threatened the woman with a Samurai sword, and pushed his thumbs on her esophagus, cutting off her airway for several seconds, according to a Washington County Court Complaint.

He then allegedly raped the woman, during which he threatened to kill her and her family if she told the police, the complaint says.

Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension records show that McMullin was convicted of robbery with a deadly weapon in Panama City, Fla., in June of 1993, according to the complaint.

Both Washington County and Hennepin County have warrants out for his arrest.

Anyone with information that might be helpful to police should contact Washington County Communications at (651) 439-9381, Detective Tom Ueland at (651) 458-6012 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.

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