Authorities are looking for a 30-year-old man and a 16-year-old runaway involved in a fracas at gas station near Dubuque.
Dubuque County Sheriff Ken Runde says 16-year-old Kaylynn Cerqua’s dad and grandfather were taking her home to central Minnesota after she’d been arrested in Savanna, Illinois — a town right across the border from Sabula, Iowa. The sheriff says Cerqua went to Savanna with 30-year-old Andrew Herbsleb. The young woman “got into a confrontation with Savanna police” according to the Dubuque County Sheriff, who says the cops in the town arrested her, then released Cerqua into the custody of her father and grandfather.
Her relatives put the runaway in their car and headed home. When the trio stopped for gas near Dubuque at a station along Highway 20, authorities say Kaylynn Cerqua ran to another vehicle that had been following them. “When they stopped for gas, the young lady acted as though she was sick so the grandfather got out of the car with her and she took off running and jumped in this guy’s car,” the sheriff says. “The grandfather went over and obviously tried to keep her from going and by that time the father, of course, had come out after paying for the gas and ran over, too, and they were trying to get her out of the car.”
The grandfather latched onto the car and was drug several feet. Runde says the father either jumped in front of the car or jumped on top of the hood and slid down. “The guy ran over his chest,” the sheriff says. “He had the most serious injuries.” The father was taken to a Dubuque hospital. The sheriff says the father had broken ribs and doctors are concerned that his lungs might collapse. The grandfather had cuts and abrasions, but refused treatment according to Runde.
The sheriff has issued a nationwide alert for a Herbsleb’s green 1996 Mercury Sable station wagon. It has Minnesota plates, with the license number KGR 471. “Both of them are considered dangerous,” the sheriff says. “She had a physical altercation with the police in Savannah and there are a number of construction tools and stuff in the vehicle that could be used as weapons.”
The 30-year-old Herbsleb is white, about 5’11”. Kaylynn Cerqua is white with black hair that’s long in the back and shaved along the sides. She wears a nose ring and is about 5 foot seven inches tall. Dubuque County authorities have filed felony charges of willful injury against Herbsleb. Cerqua is from Milaca, Minnesota.
(Ann Hughes from WDBQ in Dubuque contributed some of the information in this story.)