Sioux Falls, SD (KELO AM) – A disorderly conduct call to Old Chicago Saturday night turned into an Amber Alert for a missing child.
At approximately 8:18 p.m. officers of the Sioux Falls Police Department werecalled to the Old Chicago restaurant in Sioux Falls for a family dispute. Initially they were responding for a report of a disorderly male in the parking lot screaming for one of the female employee’s inside the restaurant. He was angry and upset with her. He left prior to the officer’s arrival. The officers made contact with female half of the altercation. She told the officers that the male half of the disturbance was JACOB NICHOLAS VORTHERMS, of Sioux Falls. She said he was the biological father of her three children, ages 18 months, 6 years, and 9 years of age. She also said that she had never married Vortherms and they did not have any type of child custody agreement in place.
She told the officers that the 6 year old and 9 year old were in Fulda, MN with their Grandmother. The female was upset because Vortherms had barged his way into her daycare provider’s residence and took her 18 month old son without her permission. She said that she had also received text messages from Vortherms stating that she would never see her children again and that he was going to get the rest of them in Fulda, MN. She was also concerned because she thought Vortherms to be intoxicated. Officers began to search for the child by geo locating Vortherms’s cell phone. They also searched the female’s residence to make sure that Vortherms had not gone to her home. Once at her home, PD discovered that Vortherms had more than likely broke in and vandalized the residence. The officers felt that Vortherms was responsible for approximately $5000.00 in property damage to the residence.
At approximately 10:00 p.m. an AMBER Alert for the child was issued and broadcast regionally. The telephone trace showed Vortherms to be in the Adrian and Fulda, MN area. Local law enforcement in Minnesota was contacted to assist with the search. They also ensured the other two children in Fulda were safe from harm. At approximately 11:30 p.m. authorities in Fulda, MN came into contact with Vortherms and the child. The child was not harmed and returned to his mother.
Vortherms was subsequently arrested on felony arrest warrants that had been issued in Minnehaha County. Bond set on the warrants totaled $50,000 Warrants served on Vortherms were for 2 counts of second degree burglary, 1 count of intentional damage to property, and 1 count of abuse or cruelty of a minor under the age of 7. Vortherms is being held in the Lyon Co, MN jail pending extradition to South Dakota