America's Most Wanted Site Features Minn. Fugitive
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- More people will be on the lookout for a Minn. fugitive after he was featured on the website for FOX-TV's America's Most Wanted on Thursday.
Jose Franciso Gomez, 36, is wanted for multiple sexual assaults on a small girl.
From 1997 through 2000, Gomez allegedly assaulted a girl, who was born in 1990.
The Minneapolis Police Department Child Abuse Unit partnered with the TV show to find Gomez. He hasn't been located or apprehended since the allegations came to light in 2006 and was charged with first degree sexual assault.
He originally fled to Texas, but the trail grew cold from there. It's believed that he may have settled in California, Florida or Mexico. Gomez has family in Puerto Rico and in the past has travelled regularly to the Dominican Republic.
Police said that Gomez frequently acted as a lay minister at his church and may still be doing so now.
He would join a church and seek out single Latino mothers with small children while portraying himself as very religious. Then he dates the mother and then takes control of the family, using religious "teachings" to convince the mother and children to submit to his will. Police said his ultimate goal is to use this control to elicit sex from the children.
Gomez is described as a Hispanic male. He is 5-feet-11-inches tall and weighed over 300 pounds in 2006. He has a pair of moles on his left chin and one on his right cheek. He also has dimples on his cheeks, a large burn scar on the inside of his right forearm, and needs either glasses or contacts to see.
Police said he often goes by the nicknames Frank, Joe, Chico or Gordo and speaks Spanish accented English, but can also speak Spanish in either a San Salvadoran or Mexico City dialect.
He has worked as a trucker, school bus driver and in restaurants.
Anyone with information about Gomez is asked to call America's Most Wanted at 1-800-CRIME-TV or go to their website to leave a tip.
Producers of the show also said they may use his profile in an upcoming episode. America's Most Wanted has helped capture 1140 fugitives since the start of the TV program in 1988.
