Police have issued an appeal to find a 31-year-old man they describe as “mentally ill and dangerous,” who has escaped from a security hospital in St. Peter.
The City of Mankato issued an alert Thursday evening to locate Jesse Nikolas Rowland, who is a “court committed patient” at the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center.
Rowland was on a supervised group community outing when he walked away from the group. He was last seen at the River Hills Mall at 1850 Adams Street around 2 p.m. Thursday.
He was wearing blue shorts, a blue hoodie, black shoes, and glasses with a dark frame.
He has brown hair in the picture above, but it was blonde as of Thursday.
“The public is asked to not approach Rowland and instead are encouraged to call 911 should they see him or someone matching the description,” the City of Mankato said, with police “pursuing all leads to locate Rowland.”
Rowland is from Moorhead, and was convicted in late 2020 with five counts of possessing child pornography, with the Star Tribune reporting he had 22,000 computer files of pornography featuring children as young as four.
Note: The details provided in this story are based on the police’s latest version of events, and may be subject to change.
