By James Gordon For Dailymail.com

Published: 02:09 GMT, 28 October 2024 | Updated: 02:09 GMT, 28 October 2024

A male cross-dressing child sexual predator is on the run from police in Oregon after managing to dodge authorities in neighboring Idaho.

Christian Bert Fischer, 42, is wanted in Florida after he allegedly traveled to meet a child he had met online and convinced them to meet up with him.

Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon detailed how they believed Fischer, who has ties to Southern Oregon, is dressed as a woman and is now on the run after evading capture by the police in Coeur D’alene, Idaho, last week. 

Fischer had been on trial in Hernando County, Florida, when he failed to appear in court for the second day of court.

Christian Bert Fischer, 42, who is known to dress up as a woman is wanted in Florida after he allegedly traveled to meet a child he had met online and convinced them to meet up with him

Fischer, who has ties to Southern Oregon, is now on the run after evading capture by the police in Coeur D’alene, Idaho, last week

The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) say Fischer fled Florida the same day and that he had condoms, lube, rope, narcotics, and other sexual items on him at the time. 

Advertisement

Investigators found he first headed to California then moved up the coast to Portland, Oregon and then onto northern Idaho. 

It’s believed Fischer has been traveling under fictitious name and is using cash to pay for expenses in order to prevent from using his credit cards giving away his location.

It also appears that he is trying his luck with families in the North Idaho area as he has attempted to befriend a number of people in the region who all have children. 

Fischer was last seen in Athol, Idaho carving pumpkins with an unknown family.

Fischer is described as a 5-foot-10, 200-pound white man with blonde hair and blue-eyes,

Fischer was last seen in Athol, Idaho carving pumpkins with an unknown family.

So far, the family he was with has not been identified, but anyone who may have interacted with Fischer is urged to contact the police. 

Advertisement

Fischer is described as a 5-foot-10, 200-pound white man with blonde hair and blue-eyes.

The Hernando County Crime Stoppers in Florida is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads directly to Fischer’s arrest. 

After skipping out on his trial, a warrant charging him with Failure to Appear was issued and Fischer was ultimately convicted in absentia for Traveling to Meet a Child.

The court in Florida is now awaiting his capture and return for formal sentencing. 

• Jodi Wright, 56, moved from California to Idaho in 2020 in search of a quiet place to retire.
• Wright and her family built a custom home outside Boise.
• But the family moved back to California earlier this year because of rising prices.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jodi Wright, a 56-year-old stay-at-home mother whose family moved from Sacramento, California, to Caldwell, Idaho, a small town about 30 minutes west of Boise, in 2020.

Idaho’s housing market has exploded in the last half-decade, with the median home price jumping from $360,700 in September 2020 to $481,100 in September 2024, according to data from Redfin. Meanwhile, median home prices in Boise specifically jumped from $389,500 in September 2020 to $525,000 in September 2024, according to Redfin data.

The following has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

I was born in Washington State. When I graduated high school, I wanted a change of scenery, so I packed up my car and moved to California.

I met my husband here, and he’s a police officer. We were blessed with triplets, but one of our sons passed away soon after being born. It was terrible, but it definitely clarified life.

We’ve always been outdoorsy people. Any vacations we take are usually geared around the beach or Disney. You can pretty much do that year-round here in California, which we love.

But the cost of living is so high, and our political affiliation is Republican. That became a problem when COVID hit, and they shut down the schools. Our kids were in second grade and struggling.

We had already purchased land in Idaho back in 2018. We were planning to move once my husband retired, but COVID sped up our plans.

We moved to Idaho in December 2020

We listed our house in California, and it sold in one day. We sold it for $699,000. On Zillow, it’s now worth over $900,000.

My husband wasn’t old enough to retire yet, so he stayed in California to keep working. We figured we would just make do for a few years until my husband could join us full-time.

We were a little nervous about how that would work. But he traveled back and forth to Idaho two or three times a month. Plus, we would FaceTime.

We started building our Idaho house in a town called Caldwell, which is part of the Treasure Valley on the outskirts of the Boise area. It was still affordable at that time. If we were to move there now, we could not afford the house we built, which cost us about $750,000.

It would probably cost twice as much to build it there today.

It was a big house, almost 4,000 square feet, with four bedrooms and five bathrooms. We had a fabulous view of the river and the mountains on two and a half acres out in the country in a small subdivision.

We wanted to live in the country, have a little more space between neighbors, and less of the hustle and bustle we were used to here in California. Our favorite part of Idaho was how quiet it was where we lived.

One of the major differences we noticed between California and Idaho is how clean Idaho is. You don’t see a bunch of graffiti or trash everywhere.

But we only stayed in Idaho for four years

We definitely thought our money was going to go farther in Idaho. Certain things are cheaper, like power and gas. So, we thought the overall cost of living would be less.

But it felt like prices really started to increase in 2021. Part of that was life in general becoming more expensive with inflation. But a lot of things in Idaho felt comparable to California.

When we first got to Idaho, my husband used to fly back and forth for less than $150. But over time, round trips got up to $300 or more.

Our auto insurance and homeowner’s insurance were cheaper than they had been in California at first. But in our last two years living there, both almost doubled.

The weather in Idaho turned out to be not conducive to our lifestyle either. You can’t really know a place until you live here. The wind blows really badly there for six or seven months a year. Plus, Idaho gets a lot of the fire smoke from California and Oregon. The first two summers we were there, we barely went outside because the air quality was so bad. The wind there just made it so much worse.

By the end of 2022, we started thinking Idaho was maybe not the place for us.

We talked a lot about maybe moving somewhere else. But the more we talked, the more we realized that California is home. Despite the politics and cost of living, it’s home.

We moved back to California in June.

I’m glad we went to Idaho. We don’t regret it at all. My kids got a great education there. We made the best of it and enjoyed it.

It took us a year to sell our house in Idaho because the housing market is flooded at the higher end. We still managed to make a couple hundred thousand.

Now that we’re back in California, we’re also paying less for car insurance than we were in Idaho.

We recently bought a house in Dixon, California, for $760,000, which we’ll be moving into in the next few months.

We’re just going to carve our little piece of happiness here in California.

COEUR d’ALENE — A bright light shined on the humanities Thursday evening as David Brooks addressed the largest crowd to ever attend the Idaho Humanities Council’s North Idaho Distinguished Lecture and Dinner at The Coeur d’Alene Resort.

Brooks, a best-selling author and journalist, carried the more than 800 audience members on a poignant and sometimes humorous journey of introspection, reflection and thoughtful communication as he discussed how to inject some humanity into a society riddled with bitter divisiveness.

He shared some of his personal experiences of opening up to others and to life in general. 

“The sad thing is, as I was taking a little step toward being more human, the broader American culture has become more dehumanized,” Brooks said.  

He spoke of increasing mental health problems, rising suicide and depression rates and how so many Americans feel sad, lonely and isolated.  

“When you get sadder, you get meaner, because when you’re not seen or you’re invisible and neglected, you feel under threat and you feel it’s an insult on your dignity, which it is,” Brooks said. 

He said some hospitals struggle to keep staff because patients have become so abusive. He touched on the increase in hate crimes and gun violence and other statistics, including how 20 years ago, two-thirds of Americans gave to charity while now fewer than 50% of Americans do. 

This dehumanization is happening across society, he said, and people are seeking unity in politics. This seems to give people a sense of community, but it’s not a true community. 

“You’re just hating the same people,” he said. “Politics seems to give you the illusion you’re taking moral action on behalf of the country, but you’re not sitting with a widow or serving the poor. You’re just being indignant on Twitter. Politics takes loneliness and turns it into culture wars.” 

He said Ryan Streeter of the American Enterprise Institute conducted a study that found that those who say they are lonely are seven times more likely to be involved in politics than other people. 

“That makes a lot of sense when you realize our politics is dominated by people who are lonely and angry at the world,” Brooks said. 

Several attributable factors include technology, social media, the reduction in community involvement, economics and more. 

Above all are basic social skills — how to be good listeners, how to gracefully end conversations, how to appropriately reveal vulnerability, how to break up with someone without crushing their heart, how to host a dinner party where everyone feels included, he said. 

“For a couple generations, we have neglected to teach each other how to be considerate to each other in the complex circumstances of life,” Brooks said. 

The one skill that tops the rest is the ability to make others feel understood and respected. 

Brooks said there are “diminishers” and “illuminators.” Diminishers never ask questions. While pleasant, they’re just not curious and may tend to stereotype others. He said they do what is called “stacking.” 

“They learn one fact about you and make a whole series of assumptions about who you must be: ‘You voted for Trump, therefore you must blah, blah, blah,’” he said. “I met a woman at a Trump rally years ago who was a lesbian biker who converted to Sufi Islam after surviving a plane crash. What stereotype does she fit into?” 

Illuminators, on the other hand, are curious about others and pay close attention. 

How do you become a better illuminator? 

“The first thing you do is be deeply involved in the humanities,” Brooks said. “The humanities, these kinds of cultural products, they furnish your mind with emotional knowledge and wisdom. They help you take a richer and more meaningful view of your own experiences. They help you understand, at least a little bit, the depths of another human being. They help you answer the deepest question, which is, ‘How should I live my life?’” 

Another step can be found in the gaze of another’s eyes. 

“We think as we go through life we’re being measured by how confident we are,” Brooks said, “but mostly we’re being measured by how warm we are.” 

Accompaniment — helping others shine — is an important illumination piece; as a pianist gives his attention to a performer, the audience’s attention is also pulled in that direction.

The art of conversation is another critical piece of helping others feel understood.

“Treat attention as an on-off switch, not a dimmer,” Brooks said. “Make it 100% or 0%, don’t 60% it.”

Be a loud listener, he said.

“I’ve got a buddy, when you talk to him, it’s like talking to a Pentecostal charismatic church, he’s like, ‘Yes, yes, yes! Amen, preach that, preach that,’” Brooks said as audience members laughed. “Love talking to that guy.”

Don’t fear the pause, Brooks advised, and don’t be a “topper” who one-ups others.

Finally, he said, to keep the “gem statement” in the center. When conversations become difficult, there is usually something deep down upon which both parties can agree.

    David Brooks addresses the largest crowd to ever attend the Idaho Humanities Council’s annual North Idaho Distinguished Lecture and Dinner at The Coeur d’Alene Resort as he speaks Thursday night on the importance of basic social skills and other aspects of restoring humanity to a dehumanized society.