Man Rescued in Andes Was Fleeing Child Sex Charges

The man who survived on raisins and rats while lost in the Andes for four months may not have exactly wanted to be found: It turns out Raul Fernando Gomez Cincunegui got lost while fleeing child sex charges, the BBC reports. The facts are a little mushy: The AP got confirmation from the Chilean prosecutor's office in Santiago that the 58-year-old is being investigated on allegations of child sex abuse and that an arrest warrant was issued April 22; the BBC reports he was actually on trial for allegedly abusing an 8-year-old boy, and that an arrest warrant was issued in July after he failed to show up in court.

Gomez's mom isn't buying the allegations, though. "Raul is a good, hard-working man," she says. "He never had troubles with anybody." So why would her son risk such a dangerous trek across the Argentina border in the middle of winter without supplies? "Because he's brave, and daring," she tells the AP. The BBC reports a prosecutor has now asked that Gomez be extradited from Argentina, where he's recuperating in the ICU of a San Juan province hospital. (More Andes stories.)