FERGUS FALLS, Minn. - A Park Rapids man is charged with more than a half-dozen criminal counts in connection with the alleged abduction and sexual assault of a woman in Otter Tail County.
Prosecutors say 39-year-old Anthony Dale Randklev entered the home of his victim through a basement window Sunday afternoon wearing a camouflage mask and hat. He reportedly asked her children where their mother was, then abducted her while carrying a shotgun, forcing 34-year-old Amber Simonson towards the woods. The children told responding deputies that the man and their mother drove off in a silver truck. The kids then ran to get their father.
The victim's husband told investigators that a man in a silver pickup had stopped at their rural residence around 10 p.m. the night before, claiming he was low on gas and needed to get back to Fergus Falls. The husband thought it was strange as he looked at the truck's gas gauge and saw the man had enough fuel to get to his destination.
Local law enforcement received information from other agencies that Randklev, a registered sex offender living in Park Rapids, was a possible suspect. They also learned his registered vehicle was a silver Chevy pickup, which was spotted by someone leaving an abandoned farmstead along Otter Tail County Road 24. Officers from a number of agencies and the State Patrol helicopter were headed towards the location when the truck was spotted at a gas station in Pelican Rapids. Squads responded, and Randklev fled at a high rate of speed, leaving authorities on a chase that at times reached speeds in the neighborhood of 90 miles per hour.
Randklev's vehicle was eventually disabled after law enforcement vehicles repeatedly tried to spin him out using a PIT maneuver, and he was taken into custody. A shotgun was recovered that Randklev allegedly threw out the window of the pickup during the pursuit.
The victim was taken to a Fargo hospital for a forensic examination. She told authorities that she was laying down with her son for a nap when Randklev entered her bedroom carrying a shotgun and demanded that she come with him. She said he threatened to kill her family if she did not comply. The victim says she was dragged to the truck, taken to the old farmstead and assaulted.
Prosecutors have charged Anthony Dale Randklev with eight different felonies, from kidnapping and sexual assault to weapons possession and fleeing police.
