A Routine Idaho Traffic Stop Uncovered Evidence Tied to More Than 100 Children
A traffic stop along an Idaho highway began with a former Minnesota teacher behind the wheel of a borrowed car. By the time it was over, troopers had seized electronic devices that would help expose crimes involving far more children than the cases already waiting for him back home. New footage has made the shocking traffic stop go viral once again.
Aaron Hjermstad had been found guilty in Minnesota less than two weeks earlier. On Nov. 18, 2021, a judge found him guilty of multiple criminal sexual conduct charges across four cases, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. He was awaiting sentencing when he left the state.
On Nov. 30, an Idaho State Police trooper stopped Hjermstad near Idaho Falls. Idaho State Police later said Hjermstad had fled Minnesota before sentencing and was arrested on a fugitive warrant.
What troopers found inside the vehicle would prove far more consequential than the stop itself. ISP reported seizing several electronic items that appeared potentially connected to the Minnesota cases and sending them for forensic examination.
Five years later, newly published police video is showing more of that encounter. FOX 9 reported that its investigators obtained footage of the stop while producing a documentary about the case. At one point, a trooper questions Hjermstad about the contents of the devices.
“My life is over,” Hjermstad responds.
The station’s documentary, “Minnesota Monster,” is scheduled to air Sept. 23. The traffic-stop footage supplies a new look at an encounter that ultimately opened a much larger investigation, one that FOX 9 reports involved more than 120 children.
Inside The Car
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Court reporting has filled in details that were not included in ISP’s original release.
Idaho State Police Cpl. Jared Shively testified in Minnesota that he stopped Hjermstad after seeing him fail to properly signal a lane change while exiting the interstate, according to Sahan Journal.
Shively testified that he found 27 digital memory cards, multiple laptops and court papers in the vehicle. He also described finding a sheet containing roughly 200 children’s names, according to Sahan’s account of the testimony.
Those details remained evidence from the Idaho stop. The scale of what investigators ultimately found emerged after the devices were examined.
A Bigger Case
By September 2024, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said the evidence recovered in Idaho contained thousands of videos depicting Hjermstad sexually assaulting additional children, including some incidents at his Brooklyn Center home.
Idaho investigators turned the material over to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for further investigation.
That work produced another prosecution. A Hennepin County grand jury indicted Hjermstad in 2024 on 12 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving 12 children who were under 13 when the assaults occurred.
The new charges were separate from the cases that had already put Hjermstad in prison.
After he was returned to Minnesota, Hjermstad was sentenced in February 2022 to 144 months in prison for his earlier convictions. Those cases involved first-, second- and fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct offenses across four separate prosecutions.
Twelve More Pleas
The later case ended without a trial.
In September 2025, Hjermstad pleaded guilty to 12 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving 12 different victims. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said all were under 13 at the time of the assaults.
Those guilty pleas turned the evidence uncovered after a traffic stop thousands of miles from Minnesota into a second set of convictions.
The case also illustrated how dramatically the scope of a criminal investigation can change after digital evidence is recovered. ISP’s first public description in 2021 referred only to several electronic items that might be related to Hjermstad’s existing Minnesota cases. By 2024, prosecutors were describing thousands of recordings involving additional children.
FOX 9’s new reporting goes further, describing an investigation involving more than 120 children. The station said its documentary includes interviews with victims, prosecutors, and people involved in the investigation.
The Final Sentence
Hjermstad returned to court on Nov. 25, 2025.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years for the 12 first-degree criminal sexual conduct convictions.
He must also register as a predatory offender and would remain on conditional release for life if he is ever released from prison.
At sentencing, Hjermstad received credit for 1,457 days he had already spent in custody.
