BROWN COUNTY, S.D. (KFGO) – A White Earth, Minnesota man has been sentenced to 50 years in a South Dakota prison for a March 2022 kidnapping.
Ryan Degroat was arrested at a rest stop north of Edgeley after abducting a 41-year-old woman from her mother’s home in Brown County, South Dakota. Law enforcement used cell phone triangulation to locate the suspect’s car in North Dakota. The woman was treated for her injuries at a Jamestown hospital.
Degroat pled guilty but mentally ill to the single charge of First Degree Kidnapping.
The North Dakota Highway Patrol and the state BCI assisted the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation and the Brown County Sheriff’s Office in the case. Prosecution was handled by the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office and the Brown County State’s Attorney’s Office.