14 February 2024
COFFEY COUNTY (KSNT) – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) has arrested a Kansas wrestling coach and teacher for alleged sex crimes.
KBI agents arrested Michael Vander Linden, 31, of Burlington Wednesday evening. He is accused of eight counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. Vander Linden is employed as a teacher and wrestling coach at Burlington High School.
KBI agents took up an investigation from the Coffey County Sheriff’s Office in June 2022, after two of his former students reported he was engaged with inappropriate sexual relationships with them in 2012 and 2013. The KBI says Vander Linden was a student teacher at Burlington High School at the time.
Vander Linden was booked into the Coffey County Jail. Anyone with information related to this investigation is asked to call the KBI at 1-800-KS-CRIME. All subjects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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