INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, Minn. 鈥� A Guatemalan woman, who was deported in 2016 after serving eight years in a Minnesota prison for causing a school bus crash that killed four children, was arrested Tuesday evening, Nov. 26, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for reentering the United States illegally.
Acting on a tip, ICE agents arrested 36-year-old Olga Franco del Cid at a residence in Inver Grove Heights, according to agency spokesman Shawn Neudauer. She will remain in custody while ICE awaits a charging decision from the U.S. attorney鈥檚 office, Neudauer said.
A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Franco del Cid was reported missing Monday by a family member, according to Inver Grove Heights Police Chief Melissa Chiodo.
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Inver Grove Heights police were not involved in her arrest, but the department was notified by ICE after the fact, Chiodo said.
Franco del Cid was driving a minivan near rural Cottonwood in February 2008 when she drove through a stop sign and crashed into a school bus full of children, killing four and injuring 17 more.
After the crash, Franco del Cid gave police a false name and claimed to be a Puerto Rican citizen, but investigators determined that she was a Guatemalan national and in the country illegally.
During her trial the following August, Franco del Cid told jurors that her boyfriend had been driving the van at the time of the crash, but she said the impact of the crash ejected him from the vehicle and and threw her partially into the driver鈥檚 seat.
She was convicted on 24 separate charges, including four counts of criminal vehicular homicide, and sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. Franco del Cid served eight years at the women鈥檚 prison in Shakopee before being released and deported.
While she was in prison, Franco del Cid began corresponding with Jerome Harvieux, now 36 and living in Maple Grove. The couple married in 2009 and they have a child together, but Harvieux filed for divorce in October, according to court documents.
