Man Leaves Wife, Kids to Run Away With Amish Teen

CEDAR SPRINGS, Mich. – A 33-year-old man's decision to run away with a 15-year-old Amish girl has left his family nearly destitute.

Julissa Jaimes says she and the couple's four children are unsure of their future as her husband, Osvaldo, sits in a Mexican jail awaiting possible extradition to Michigan.

Michigan authorities say he planned to marry the teenager. The Cedar Springs resident was arrested Monday trying to enter Mexico at the Laredo, Texas, border with the girl who was listed as a runaway.

"I'm just waiting for an eviction notice or a shut-off notice so the FIA (Family Independence Agency) can help me," Julissa Jaimes told The Daily News of Greenville for a story Thursday.

"He was very controlling, and he never let me work or nothing. I'm broken. This is very tough on me."

Osvaldo Jaimes and the teenager left her family's Montcalm County farm, about 30 miles northeast of Grand Rapids, on Feb. 24.

The girl is expected to be questioned by police when she returns to Michigan.

Charges against Osvaldo Jaimes will depend on what happened while they were together, police told the newspaper. A report eventually will be given to the Montcalm County prosecutor.

Osvaldo Jaimes rented space on the teen's family farm where he built crates for a local fruit farmer.

"Every time he would go where they live she would go out there and they would talk for hours," Julissa James said. "I don't know how her parents could let a young lady talk to an older man."

"My kids know everything that is going on. They say, `I can't believe my dad ran off with an Amish girl.'

"My plan is to get custody of the kids and a divorce."

Julissa Jaimes, 27, said the couple's four children, ages 7, 8, 10 and 11, are U.S. citizens.

Her cousin, Norma Vela, says Julissa was 15 when she married Osvaldo Jaimes.

"Who's going to help her? She doesn't have an education. How far is she going to get," Vela told WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids.