A tale of cultural values and a relationship gone bad reached a violent peak in Austin early this morning and ended with an arrest in Faribault a few hours later.

Friday, November 03, 2000

A tale of cultural values and a relationship gone bad reached a violent peak in Austin early this morning and ended with an arrest in Faribault a few hours later.

Ruth Aganya, 25, a native of Sudan, Africa, was reported missing by her boyfriend after he woke up just before 5 a.m. and discovered her car parked diagonally in the couple’s driveway in Austin. There was no sign of Aganya, who normally arrives home from work at Hormel Foods Co. around 2 a.m.

The boyfriend called the police immediately, without going outside, because of previous threats he and Aganya had received from her former boyfriend, Odola Nygwo, 29, of Minneapolis. Nygwo, who is also a native of Sudan, had been sending threatening letters and, according to the Austin Police Department’s report, had even visited the police station earlier this autumn to report Aganya as missing. At that time he had stated that in Sudan, his girlfriend was considered his property and that he had the right to kill any man who took her. Nygwo had also previously visited the Hormel Company’s offices in search of Aganya.

When police arrived at the residence, they found Aganya’s car parked diagonally on the drive and other tire tracks perpendicular to the south of the car. Officers surmised that someone had been waiting across the street and had pulled into the yard, directly in Aganya’s path, when she pulled into the driveway after work. North of the car, along the sidewalk, officers discovered a blue smock, a black tie, a plastic toy gun barrel and a cord with a loop on it. Aganya’s keys were discovered next to the vehicle.

"It appears that she (Aganya) dropped her keys and ran, and was possible threatened with the gun barrel when she was caught," Police Chief Paul Philipp said this morning, reading from an as-yet-unfinished police report. "In the struggle, the other items were probably dropped."

Philipp said the Austin Police Department had sent out a report of the probable abduction to surrounding law enforcement agencies – a report that met with success.

At approximately 7:09 a.m. Rice County law enforcement notified the Austin Police Department that both Aganya and Nygwo were in custody.

Faribault police had received a 911 call from a lady saying there were strangers in her apartment building. Apparently, Philipp’s said, Aganya had run down the hallway crying out, "help me" with Nygwo in pursuit.

"She has been recovered," Philipp said, adding that there were some binding wounds on Aganya’s wrists, but police didn’t know if she had been further assaulted.

Philipp thought both the suspect and the victim would be in Austin before the end of the day today.