Frustrated with the FBI’s lack of involvement, Lydia Lerma says she decided she would take matters into her own hands when the man who molested her son got out of jail on bail and took off to Mexico. The man might have been able to elude the police, but he couldn’t escape from Lerma.

Lerma’s son told her about a man who lived with his father and said that he molested him at his father’s home. The man was hockey coach Andrew Vanderwal, and when Lerma called the police and told them what he had done to her son, he was arrested. He later posted $750 bail and fled to Mexico.

Lerma was certain the man had additional victims besides her son and wanted the FBI and police to investigate him, but with his whereabouts unknown, the authorities offered very little help with the case. They informed her that they couldn’t just “go fishing” for victims. She informed them that if they wouldn’t, then she would.

Although the police warned her not to go hunting for Vanderwal by herself, she did anyway. She took to social media and posted pictures and descriptions of Vanderwal and explained what he had done and why she was looking for him. To start with, she heard nothing, then finally a tip came in.

Months after posting on social media, she received an anonymous tip from someone in Mexico saying they knew where Vanderwal was. Lerma and her significant other, Russ Lambert, immediately flew to Mexico to hunt down Vanderwal.

With the help of the tipster, Vanderwal showed up at a grocery store where Lerma waited to take pictures. She says as a hunter it was difficult not to just shoot him on the spot. She was, after all, hunting, and he was her prey. Instead, she fought back the urge and took plenty of pictures.

When Vanderwal left the grocery store, Lerma tried to follow him, but lost him in traffic. Still, the photos were enough for the FBI to finally find Vanderwal and arrest him. He is currently in a Colorado jail facing charges of sexual assault of a child and fleeing the country on bail.

Lerma says death would have been too easy for Vanderwal. She wants him to have to face the courts, prison, and his family and friends as a child molester. She wants him to have to wear the label and take the punishment that he deserves.

This mother bravely sought justice for her son and at the same time, possibly preventing other boys from being victimized by Vanderwal.