Accomplice convicted in Lakeville girls’ disappearance
Published 10:11 am Friday, September 30, 2016
HASTINGS — A Minnesota woman has been convicted of helping a mother hide her two teenage daughters from their father.
A jury in Dakota County deliberated about an hour Thursday before convicting Deirdre Evavold on six counts of depriving the rights of a custodial parent. The 52-year-old St. Cloud woman is to be sentenced Nov. 10.
Prosecutors said Sandra Grazzini-Rucki and Evavold took the girls, then 13 and 14, from Lakeville to a ranch near Herman in April 2013 to hide them during a divorce. Investigators searched Evavold’s house in October 2015. Evidence on her cell phone led them to Herman.
Grazzini-Rucki was convicted earlier and will spend up to eight months in prison.
The ranch owners who kept the girls, Doug and Gina Dahlen, are facing felony charges. The girls moved back in with their father late last year.