On January 28, 2026, at 1139 hours, St. Paul police officers responded to the 800 block of Case, St. Paul, Ramsey County, on a report that a child [NAME REDACTED] at the home. The 911 caller reported that she was having an online learning session with a 14-year-old female, SP. During the session, SP sent a message to the teacher reporting that a male in the house was sexually assaulting her. She reported that she was scared and was hiding from the male. Officers located SP. She was crying in the basement bathroom.
She was rocking back and forth. Officers separated SP from her parents. She reported that she was being sexually touched by an older male in the home, later identified as Ta Thu, [DOB REDACTED]. She told her teacher that she wanted it to stop. She said, “It doesn’t matter, my parents don’t believe me. They are going to be very mad because I told someone it was going on.” While officers were speaking with SP, her mother came into the room and began to yell at SP in Karen. Officers had to remove the mother from the area so she would not interfere.
SP went to Midwest Children’s Resource Center for evaluation. There she reported that Thu lived with her family for three years. She knows him as “grandpa.” She said her parents are always at work. She said she was completing online schooling. She was in the kitchen making food. Thu started by touching her on the side of the hip. He then came behind her and grabbed both of her breasts, under her clothing. After he grabbed her, he offered to buy her “so much stuff.” She said this has happened before during the Summer of 2025. He would ask her to massage his legs.
He would then touch her breasts under her clothing. His private part would touch her leg. His private part was hard. She said this has happened five times, maybe six. When she told her parents, her mother said, “stop being silly.” In a post-Miranda interview, Thu said that he lives with SP’s family. They are friends. Thu initially said that he only touched SP’s stomach in the kitchen because she eats so much food. When the investigator pointed out that SP said he touched her breasts under her shirt, he said, “Yes, it’s up to her, whatever she says then, you know, just she’ll go with it.” When asked whether it is true or false that he touched her breasts, he said, “that’s true.” He said he first went under her shirt and touched her stomach.
He added, “and then my hands just go up there.” He admitted that he touched her breasts about a year ago. He said it was over the clothing. He said it was an accident. He added, “I kinda go over my limit, it’s my fault.” He said he knows that breasts are private parts and that what he did was wrong.
