Stalking alleged in missing woman case

A 41-year-old Mosinee man has been arrested and charged with stalking a Loyal woman who has been missing since last October.

A single count of felony stalking resulting in bodily harm was filed last week against Jesus Contreras-Perez, who is being held in the Clark County Jail on a $25,000 cash bond.

According to the criminal complaint filed on April 27, four witnesses told members of the Clark County Sheriff’s Department that Contreras-Perez was stalking a woman he had previously been in a relationship with.

The woman’s name was not revealed in the criminal complaint, but it does state that she lives in Loyal and “has not been seen or heard from” since the early morning of Oct. 3, 2020.

The details match those of 27-yearold Cassandra Ayon of Loyal, who was reported missing on Oct. 3 of last year. Police said she was last seen leaving the trailer court in Unity between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m. on that date.

Clark County authorities have not released any new details about Ayon’s disappearance since Dec. 22, when they announced they were looking for a red or maroon SUV that may have been involved.

The criminal complaint is based on the statements of four unnamed witnesses who were interviewed by police shortly after Ayon went missing last October.

Based on those witness statements, Ayon had broken up with Contreras-Perez about a year before she went missing, and they had lived together “on and off” before that. One of the witnesses men- tioned that they had a child together.

Two of the witnesses appear to have been with Ayon the night she went missing. One of them, a male subject, said he last saw her at about 2 a.m. on Oct. 3 at a friend’s house in Marshfield. The witness said Ayon told him that Contreras-Perez had followed her home from work that night.

According to the detective’s report, the witness said Ayon appeared nervous and “continually looked out the window while she was with him that night.”

Another witness said Ayon had picked him up in Unity after she got off work on the night of Oct. 2. She told him that she suspected Contreras-Perez of following her. The witness said Ayon turned off all the lights at his house after she arrived, and “she was looking out the window the whole time they were at their friend’s house in Marshfield.”

Both of these witnesses told police that they had previously seen bruises on the victim’s wrists, arms and around her eyes, allegedly caused by Contreras-Perez. Some of these bruises were reportedly caused when he tried to prevent Ayon from getting out of a vehicle with him.

In June of 2020, according to one of the witnesses, Ayon told him that Contreras-Perez was waiting for her with a knife when the witness dropped her off at her home in Loyal. He allegedly threatened to hurt her and any men she was with.

Another witness, a female party, said she and Ayon were coming back from a walk on July 5, 2020, when Contreras-Perez showed up and started asking them why they were there and what they had been doing.

The witness, who said she recorded the interaction with her phone, claims that Contreras-Perez “raised his hand” at Ayon, causing her to flinch. The witness said Ayon told him to leave but he refused until she eventually talked to him for about an hour.

A fourth witness told police that he and Ayon had their cell phones stolen out of their car while they were parked at the Kwik Trip in Abbotsford on Sept. 18, 2020. The witness said Ayon was convinced that Contreras-Perez took the phones.

The stalking charge against Contreras- Perez, which comes with a domestic abuse enhancer, is a Class F felony that carries a maximum prison sentence of 12 and a half years.

A preliminary hearing in the stalking case has been scheduled for today at the Clark County Courthouse in Neillsville.

It is unclear at this point if any further charges will be filed against Contreras- Perez, or if he is officially considered a suspect in either a kidnapping or homicide case.

Clark County district attorney Melissa Inlow declined to comment on this story due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.

A BREAK IN THE CASE? -This billboard on STH 29 was put up after the disappearance of 27-year-old Cassandra Ayon of Loyal last October. A Mosinee man was recently charged with stalking her.STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN O’BRIEN