DNA leads to charges for man accused of raping teen
DNA identified a suspect accused of raping a teenage girl at a Mankato hotel last summer, but the man’s whereabouts are currently unknown, according to court documents.
Treonn Delrae Hardin, 27, of Mankato, was charged last week in Blue Earth County Court with felony 3rd-degree criminal sexual conduct with a victim ages 14 to 15.
According to a criminal complaint, a front desk employee initially called 911 in the early morning hours of August 5 to report noisy guests. She called back minutes later to report that a female had approached the desk and said her younger sister was engaging in sex acts with adult men in one of the rooms.
Two girls were in the lobby when officers arrived and said their mother, who had dropped them off the day before at the hotel, was on the way to pick them up. The girls gave police the room number of the alleged sexual assault. The room was registered to Hardin, according to the complaint.
One of the girls told police that the victim had invited the older men to the hotel. The girl said she had discovered the victim in the room with the men and removed her. The girl said she didn’t witness sexual acts but believed something had happened.
The complaint says police then took a call from the victim’s brother, who told investigators that his sister had been missing from home for three or four days and the girl she was with was not her sister. The brother said he believed the other female was trying to sex traffic his sister and a similar situation had occurred in Rochester the weekend before.
Police say video surveillance shows Hardin pulling the victim into him by her hips in the hotel parking lot, then checking into the hotel with her.
The victim’s actual sister told police the victim had been given Percoset and the other female had set up “dates” for her.
The victim told police she and Hardin “had sex,” and that Hardin knew it was her 15th birthday. She initially declined a sexual assault exam, but later underwent an exam in Austin.
Police spoke to Hardin on September 4. He denied being involved with the hotel incident, or sexually assaulting the victim. He agreed to come to the Public Safety Center to provide a DNA sample, according to the complaint, but failed to show up.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension compared samples from the victim’s exam to samples from Hardin’s profile in the Minnesota Convicted Offender DNA Database. The sperm cells identified in the exam matched Hardin’s DNA profile, according to the complaint.
Hardin has a 2017 conviction for aggravated 1st-degree robbery in Hennepin County. He also has convictions for 5th-degree assault and disorderly conduct.
A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
