Man Charged with Kidnapping, Raping 7-Year-Old Zimmerman Girl

(KNSI) – A 28-year-old International Falls man has been charged with abducting a seven-year-old girl from Zimmerman on Wednesday and raping her.

Joseph Andrew Bragg appeared in Sherburne County District Court on Friday, where he was charged with one felony count of kidnapping to facilitate a felony or flight and one felony charge of 1st-degree criminal sexual conduct.

According to court documents, the girl’s mother reported her daughter missing around 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 21st, after the child didn’t come home from school. The mother learned she wasn’t with her father or grandmother, and no one else had permission to be with her.
Police say the girl had been dropped off by her school bus around 3:40 p.m. Neighbor surveillance footage showed her walking toward her home at 3:53 p.m. before turning back toward the bus stop and disappearing from view.

During the investigation, the mother told authorities about an unusual online interaction in December with a Facebook user identified as Bragg. She accepted a friend request because she thought she knew him. The mother said the 28-year-old had contacted her, asked whether she had children, and expressed interest in working with children and childcare services in the Zimmerman-Princeton area. She ultimately learned she didn’t know him and blocked him.

Investigators say they tracked Bragg using cell phone location data and identified him as traveling southbound toward Iowa in a white 2025 Dodge Ram rental vehicle with Tennessee plates. An Amber Alert was issued after information was shared with multiple agencies.

Bragg was taken into custody around 12:34 a.m. on January 22nd after an Albert Lea Police Department sergeant stopped the white pickup truck near the Trails Travel Center and Love’s Truck Stop, about 140 miles south of Zimmerman and 12 miles from the Iowa border. Officers say the truck was packed with items, and they spotted a young girl with blonde hair in the backseat, partially obscured by belongings, including a large red suitcase that appeared to be empty.

The girl was safely recovered and identified as the missing child from Zimmerman. Bragg was placed under arrest and declined to speak with police.

Investigators discovered Bragg had parked a car at a house in Hamel and asked the homeowner if he could leave it there for a while because he was going out of state. Bragg used the Lyft ride service to take him and the girl from a house in the Hamel/Corcoran area to a Ramada Inn in Plymouth, where he had reserved a room from December 27th, 2025, through January 21st, 2026. Hotel surveillance footage showed him entering alone while carrying a large red suitcase that appeared to be heavy and hard for him to lift.

Prosecutors say location data confirmed the rental vehicle was in the area of the victim’s residence on January 21st around the time she would have gotten off the school bus.

The child underwent a forensic interview and examination, and it was determined she had been sexually assaulted.

___