A Rosemount contractor pleaded guilty Monday to stealing $880,000 from a pair of investors who believed his company was using their money to flip houses.

Jesse Wells Haug, 33, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to one count of wire fraud, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Haug, who owns a local construction firm called 7-10 Services, told his victims that he planned to renovate and sell 10 Twin Cities residential properties, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

If they would put up the money to buy the houses, Haug promised his investors a cut of the profits. Instead, Haug used his investors’ money to pay personal debts and other business expenses.

No sentence was agreed upon as part of Haug’s guilty plea, but sentencing guidelines for this offense stipulate a prison term of between 33 months and 63 months, according to court documents.

A St. Paul man faces criminal charges after threatening to kill a store clerk who told him he wasn’t allowed to smoke inside a mini-market on Payne Avenue.

Norman Richard Strong, 38, was charged Tuesday with making felony-level threats of violence in the June 3 incident, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

The charging document states that Norman Strong walked into the Quick Stop Market at 664 Payne Avenue around 8:30 p.m. last Sunday while smoking a cigarette.

When a store employee told him smoking wasn’t allowed inside the retailer and that he’d have to leave, Norman Strong reportedly retaliated by threatening the clerk’s life.

“I have a bullet with your name on it. I’m going to kill you,” Strong told the employee, according to court documents.

Norman Strong was arrested shortly thereafter.

The store employee later told police that Norman Strong’s sister had been fatally shot inside the store a few months prior and that Strong blamed the clerk for her death.

Lynnae Strong, 37, was fatally shot last Jan. 29 inside the convenience store by a store employee who told police that Lynnae Strong had tried to stab him.

Her family told media after her death that the employee’s account of what happened didn’t match Lynnae Strong’s character.

No charges have been filed in the case.

While en route to jail this past Sunday, Norman Strong reportedly told a police officer that he knew how to build bombs and would find out where the officer lived.

His public defender, Adrianne McMahon, declined to comment Wednesday about the latest charges facing her client.

His next court appearance is scheduled for June 19.

The woman involved in a fatal stabbing in Newport over the weekend was hospitalized for a laceration to her head and multiple bruises on her body, authorities say.

Washington County authorities are not yet releasing the names or ages of the couple involved in the stabbing, saying the case is being investigated, but Sgt. Mike Benson said the woman was treated at United Hospital for her injuries.

“This isn’t a typical situation,” Benson said Wednesday afternoon. “We want to make sure we have the entire story correct before we give out more information. We don’t want to leave it open to interpretation.”

The fatality was a result of domestic violence, he said.

A neighbor called police at 6:30 a.m. Sunday to report that a man had been stabbed in the 400 block of Sixth Avenue; he later was pronounced dead at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Benson said.

The woman was treated and released Sunday, he said.

“The blade was there, she got him in the abdomen,” Jamie told KSTP. “He backed away, collapsed and she was able to escape with her dogs.”

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A Minnesota woman accused of killing her husband and a Florida woman and leading authorities on a cross-country manhunt was indicted by a grand jury in Florida, officials said Wednesday.

Officials in Lee County, Florida, said a grand jury indicted 56-year-old Lois Riess on first-degree murder with a firearm. The charge carries a mandatory life sentence in prison if she is convicted.

Riess will be arraigned June 11.

For the death penalty to be sought, the State Attorney’s Office would have to convene a death penalty review committee, Samantha Syoen, communications director for the State Attorney’s Office, said.

A spokeswoman for the state attorney’s office said prosecutors won’t discuss whether they’ll seek death at this stage of the case.

Court documents say 54-year-old David Riess was found dead at the couple’s Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, home in March. Authorities say Riess went to Fort Myers and met 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson. Investigators believe Riess killed Hutchinson to assume her identity. Riess was captured in Texas.

Detectives say it’s unclear how Hutchinson and Riess met, but investigators found surveillance video of the two women at a local restaurant near a Gulf of Mexico beach and at the Hutchinson’s condo-hotel building in early April.

Hutchinson’s body wasn’t found until April 9, when a hotel employee entered the unit. She was found dead in the bathroom, lying on a pillow and covered with a towel. She’d been shot twice, once in the heart and once in the side.

Ten days later, Riess was arrested at a waterfront restaurant by two federal deputy marshals in South Padre Island, Texas, when an employee recognized her from surveillance video broadcast on television. She was drinking cocktails at the bar when she was taken into custody.

Riess was extradited to Florida, where she was charged with one count of second degree murder, plus one count each of grand theft, grand theft of an automobile and criminal use of personal identification. Charges in Minnesota are pending.

Riess has been assigned a public defender, and is scheduled for a court hearing in Lee County on Thursday. A woman answering the phone at the Lee County public defender’s office said there is no comment on Riess’ case.

The Florida grand jury also indicted Riess on charges of grand theft of a motor vehicle, grand theft and criminal use of personal identification information of a deceased individual.

Prosecutors have reached a plea deal with a 19-year-old man who was shot by Minneapolis officers after he brandished a knife in a police interrogation room in December.

Marcus Fischer pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of assault for moving toward officers with a knife he had smuggled into the room at City Hall.

Authorities say Fischer began harming himself with a large folding knife hidden in his waistband. Officers shot Fischer after trying to subdue him.

Fischer also admitted to shooting a man in the chest during an earlier gun sale in northeast Minneapolis that he was being questioned about.

Fischer is expected to receive a six-year prison sentence next Tuesday.

Hennepin County prosecutor Mike Freeman says Fischer’s admission shows he is a threat to public safety.

FARGO, N.D. — Ila Mae Lou Averson was a baseball fan and a fun-loving person. She built a 40-year career as a secretary for Northern States Power Co., and she was married for more than 50 years.

But when kidney disease and other health problems chipped away at her well-being and mobility, her happiness faded in the last few years.

“She said it was a sad time in her life. She had problems with her legs and had to use a walker,” said her sister, Carol Haak of Vergas, Minn.

According to Fargo police and Cass County District Court documents, Ila and her husband, Louis Averson, whose health was also failing, apparently made a suicide pact.

The couple, both 85, left a will on their dining room table Friday night, June 1, then went to their garage at their south Fargo apartment complex. Then, they ran their Toyota Avalon in an attempt to die by carbon monoxide poisoning.

When that didn’t work, Louis allegedly got a .38-caliber revolver and, in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 2, shot Ila in the chest, killing her. He then shot himself in the chest, but survived. Now he is in Sanford Hospital, recovering from his wounds, under guard and facing a murder charge.

“I guess, looking back … suicide wasn’t quite a shock,” Haak said Wednesday, June 6. “The shock was how she died, by being shot like that.”

Ila didn’t come out and say she wanted to die, but in hindsight, Haak said there were hints.

“She did mention that she wished the Lord would come down and take her,” Haak said. “I know she once mentioned that all she had to do was quit dialysis” and she would die.

The Forum News Service also attempted to interview Louis Averson on Wednesday.

Averson, who was a Fargo firefighter from 1954 to 1979, told Cass County sheriff’s deputies guarding him that he did not care to be interviewed, said Capt. Andrew Frobig, the Cass County Jail administrator.

Ila was born May 1, 1933, in Detroit Lakes, Minn., and grew up in Lake Park, Minn., where she graduated from high school. She married Louis Averson in 1962 in Lake Park Lutheran Church, Haak said.

The Aversons had no children and were “very private people,” Haak said. “They never really wanted anyone over there.”

Haak didn’t know much about Louis.

“My family hasn’t had much to do with him,” Haak said. But she’d talk with Ila every four to six weeks. “It was always Ila that called.”

“She liked to watch baseball. She was a big Minnesota Twins fan. And she liked to do puzzles also. And read magazines,” Haak said.

Ila’s passing, like her life, will be private, Haak said. Ila’s wishes were to be cremated, without a funeral.

A SERIOUS CONCERN

Local and national experts say suicide brought on by depression and anxiety, social isolation, chronic pain, failing finances and other circumstances is a serious concern for the elderly.

Suicide and suicide pacts among seniors are not something people want to talk about, said Kathleen Cameron, senior director for the Center for Healthy Aging at the National Council on Aging. But “it’s not unheard of, unfortunately. It’s very sad.”

Suicide is “unfortunately more common than we’d like to think about,” Cameron said. Guns often play a role, particularly for men, she said.

Cameron said getting seniors help to deal with depression, pain and other issues is vital.

“Depression is not a normal part of aging. And suicide is not a normal part of anyone’s aging,” she said.

Kim Douglas, a counselor at The Village Family Service Center in Fargo, said seniors see depression as a flaw or weakness. With the baby boom generation marching into retirement and people living longer, “those problems … are coming up more often.”

Douglas said suicide pacts appear to be a trend among the elderly “especially those who have been together a long time. Even my parents will say, ‘If you die, I want to die.’ Especially if they love each other, they can’t imagine a life without the other.”

Some phrases are red flags.

“If they say ‘I feel like a burden,’ that’s when your red flags should go up,” Douglas said. “If you hear people say ‘I wish I would go to sleep and just not wake up,’ that’s a suicidal thing.”

Douglas said friends and family who see signs of depression in seniors should urge them to visit a doctor or counselor.

“Depression, if left untreated, can be fatal,” she said.

WARNING SIGNS

The more signs a person shows, the greater the risk. Warning signs are associated with suicide but may not be what causes a suicide:

• Talking about wanting to die.
• Looking for a way to kill oneself.
• Talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose.
• Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain.
• Talking about being a burden to others.
• Increased use of alcohol or drugs.
• Acting anxious, agitated or reckless.
• Sleeping too little or too much.
• Withdrawing or feeling isolated.
• Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge.
• Displaying extreme mood swings.

WHAT TO DO

If someone you know shows warning signs:

• Don’t leave the person alone.
• Remove any guns, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt.
• Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-TALK (8255).
• Take the person to an emergency room, seek help from a medical or mental health professional or call 911.

Source: www.reportingonsuicide.org

TOWN OF EAGLE, Wis. — Authorities in Waukesha County say a fugitive considered armed and dangerous may be driving a stolen car and could be headed for the La Crosse area or Minnesota.

Dozens of law enforcement officers searched for Jonathan Pogreba in Waukesha County Tuesday and Wednesday. A warrant has been issued for his arrest on charges of second-degree endangering safety, disorderly conduct and battery. A criminal complaint says the 43-year-old Pogreba pointed a gun at his wife and assaulted her.

The local search was suspended late Wednesday because sheriff’s officials didn’t believe he was still in the area. Because Pogreba has acquaintances in the La Crosse area and Minnesota, authorities believe he may he headed there in a white BMW that was stolen from a neighbor.

A vehicle slammed into Joseph’s Coat in St. Paul early Thursday — temporarily shutting down the nonprofit, which provides free clothes and other items for those in need.

The building sustained extensive damage, as did many items inside. The director said she doesn’t know when the store will reopen.

“It’s really sad that it’s going to impact a lot of people,” said Cheryl Stern, director of Joseph’s Coat at West Seventh and Bay streets.

From 350 to 400 people come through the store each day for clothing, household goods, shoes, books and personal hygiene items, Stern said.

Police were called at 2 a.m. about a vehicle striking the building and then driving away.

“Apparently someone from the bar across the street heard or saw part of it,” Stern said. “The car was in the store and the person was rocking it back and forth, and finally got out and drove away.”

The driver has not been found, according to police. Parts of the vehicle, a red or maroon Subaru, were left behind in the store, Stern said.

Police told Stern the driver may have been heading west on West Seventh Street, attempted to turn on Bay Street and “came plowing through the building,” she said. “The person had to be coming at a very rapid rate of speed.”

The front of Joseph’s Coat is boarded up, but it doesn’t tell the story of the damage inside.

“The vehicle went through the front of our building and did extensive damage to the wall and door and pushed all our racks all the way to the back of the store,” Stern said. “Our display cases are ruined. … There’s glass virtually everywhere, including in the clothes. Pretty much everything is going to have to be thrown out.”

Stern said she was relieved the incident happened in the middle of the night, when no one was in the store, because the check-in desk was struck and “is in pieces all over the store — it’s pretty ugly.”

New carpet, which people donated to have put in a year ago, also is ruined, Stern said.

A St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections fire inspector determined there is no eminent danger of collapse and issued a partial condemnation of the building due to damage, according Laurie Brickley, DSI spokeswoman. The building can’t be occupied until repairs have been made under permit, she said.

Stern said she is awaiting information from an insurance adjuster, which will help determine when they can open again.

Joseph’s Coat, which has been around since 1989, is “a free store for the working poor and homeless,” Stern said. The non-profit has 135 volunteers, and relies on the generosity of people who donate items and funds, Stern said.

“We’ll just have to regroup and move on,” she said. Stern said she expects they’ll have a fundraising drive when they know what is — and what is not — covered by insurance.

Joseph’s Coat takes financial donations online.

The wife of a man fatally shot by St. Paul police two years ago faces criminal charges after authorities say she threatened to shoot officers in retaliation.

Kay Maureen Smith, 42, was charged Thursday with one count of threats of violence for the incident, which took place shortly after midnight Wednesday, according to the criminal complaint filed against her in Ramsey County District Court.

Smith’s husband, Jaffort Smith, was fatally shot by four St. Paul police officers in the spring of 2016 after they observed him shoot a female companion in the face before starting to fire at officers, according to legal documents.

A grand jury subsequently determined that the officers’ use of deadly force was justified.

Upset about the circumstances of his death, Smith called a non-emergency telephone number for Ramsey County dispatch just before 12:30 am. Wednesday and asked to speak to a supervisor, the complaint said.

She went on to warn the dispatcher that she knew where the four officers involved in her husband’s shooting lived and warned that their lives were in “jeopardy.”

“Watch how this turns out for the cops because I’m going to turn it back on them,” Smith told the dispatcher, according to the criminal complaint. “Tell the people who killed my husband to watch their lives, they deserved to die (because) they are not free.”

“Tell all four of them their lives are in jeopardy,” she allegedly continued. “They killed my husband and I want them to acknowledge it before I shoot all four of them.

Shortly thereafter, dispatch received a 911 call from someone who said she was Smith’s friend. The woman told the dispatcher that Smith was in “a bad place” as well as “suicidal” and relayed where officers could find her.

Smith was arrested by New Brighton police at her place of business, the complaint said.

En route to jail, Smith proceeded to threaten her arresting officers and was also self-injurious, according to the complaint.

In a later interview, she told investigators she’d been drinking the night before and was “upset about her husband being shot by police,” the complaint said

She also reportedly revealed that she’s been diagnosed with mental health conditions following her husband’s death and was also suicidal.

She denied knowing where the officers who shot him live and said she does not own a gun, the complaint said.

She also referred to her actions as a “mistake.”

Smith is banned from owning a firearm due to a domestic-assault related conviction in Montana in 2009, legal documents say.

She is scheduled to make her first court appearance on her latest charge Thursday afternoon.

No attorney was listed for her in court records.

Corydon Nilsson — founder of The New North, a police-accountability watchdog group that focuses on victims with mental illnesses — has known Smith for about two years and said he was sad to hear the news. He met Smith when she came to protests outside the Governor’s Residence after Philando Castile was fatally shot by a St. Anthony police officer.

“She’s always been a loving person in my interactions with her and I would have to think that grieving played a large factor in her decision to allegedly make threats,” Nilsson said Thursday.

A teenage motorcyclist who crashed into a car after fleeing from police in Fridley has died.

Police identified the motorcyclist as 18-year-old Zachary McGee of New Brighton.

Authorities said an officer tried to stop McGee late Tuesday morning for reckless driving, but McGee took off near 61st and University Avenues Northeast.

The officer didn’t pursue the driver because of policy and concerns for public safety.

McGee ran stop lights and used turn lanes to speed around traffic, police said. Witnesses told police that as McGee reached the intersection with 49th Avenue Northeast, he drove through a red light at at least 100 mph and struck the rear driver’s side of a car proceeding through the intersection.

McGee was not wearing a helmet. The driver of the car was not injured.

Fridley police said the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office will release more details about McGee’s death.

Gunshots fired from one vehicle to another at mid-day Thursday in St. Paul ended with a crash and a woman taken to the hospital for evaluation.

No injuries were reported from the shooting, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

At about 1 p.m., police received information about shots fired in the area of Rice Street and Pennsylvania Avenue — someone in one vehicle was said to have shot at another car. A red sports-utility vehicle and silver car were reported as possibly being involved, Ernster said.

The silver car drove off and crashed into an uninvolved vehicle on Rice Street between Atwater Street and Winnipeg Avenue, Ernster said. Paramedics evaluated a woman in the vehicle that was struck; she didn’t need to go to the hospital.

The people in the silver car ran away, but police found a woman who had been in the car, Ernster said. Paramedics took her to the hospital to be evaluated for injuries from the crash. Two males who had been in the car were not found.

Police are investigating what led to the shots fired and who was involved, Ernster said.

An armed man walked into a Mounds View drugstore in March with a black mask covering the lower part of his face.

Martavis Shawn-Demar James, 37, of Champlin pointed his handgun at a CVS employee around 9 p.m. March 29 and demanded the woman take him to the store’s safe, legal documents say.

With a gun pressed into her back, the store employee complied. She led James into the manager’s office, where the safe is located, and both she and the store manager emptied its contents — about $2,500 — into his red duffel bag.

Then James made the two lie on the floor, and fled.

That’s the account outlined in a Ramsey County District Court criminal complaint filed Thursday charging James via warrant with two counts of first-degree aggravated robbery.

James was arrested about two months later after he robbed the store at 2800 Mounds View Blvd. a second time, authorities say.

In that instance, James ordered the same female employee along with one of her colleagues to empty the store’s safe just before 10 p.m. May 16, according to the complaint.

That time authorities believe James made off with about $3,500.

While the store’s surveillance system was down during the first robbery, it was working the night of the second. The store employee who had been present during both was able to verify for police that the man shown in the May 16 footage was the same one who robbed the store in late March, the complaint said.

James was arrested June 1 at a CVS in Eden Prairie as he attempted to rob the pharmacy, authorities say. He was reportedly wearing a black face mask and gloves and had a red duffel bag as well as a black Airsoft pellet gun in his vehicle, according to the charges.

He told police he only planned to shoplift from that location and denied being involved with any robberies, the complaint said.

James faces six other aggravated robbery charges in Hennepin County for allegedly robbing six pharmacies there between March and June.

His criminal records includes several convictions for theft as well as receiving stolen property, fleeing police in a motor vehicle and violating the terms of a predatory offender registration.

No attorney was listed for James in court records as of Thursday afternoon, nor was a date set for his first court appearance on the Ramsey County charges.

OMAHA, Neb. — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is establishing a new field division based in Omaha that will include Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

In a news conference Thursday in Omaha, DEA Acting Administrator Robert Patterson said the new division will open in July. It is the agency’s 23rd division office in the United States.

Patterson says the move was prompted in part by the nation’s growing opioid crisis. In April, authorities seized a record 118 pounds of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl during a traffic stop.

The Omaha division will be led by Matthew Barden, who previously served as the Associate Special Agent in Charge of the St. Louis Division.

Barden says the new division will “produce more effective investigations on methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and prescription opioid trafficking.”

The Minneapolis Police Department said Thursday it will discontinue undercover stings targeting low-level marijuana sales in the wake of operations that resulted in the disproportionate arrests of black people.

Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced the new policy at the direction of Mayor Jacob Frey.

The Star Tribune reported the change follows a report prepared by the Hennepin County public defender’s office that said 46 of 47 people arrested in the sting operations from Jan. 24 to May 24 were black. Almost all the cases involved the sale of 1 to 2 grams of marijuana for $10 to $20, said the report, which was filed in court last week to challenge the arrests.

Arradondo, the city’s first black police chief, said at a news conference that police were trying to reduce downtown crime.

“While the intention was good, it had an unintended consequence,” he said.

The chief said the new policy applies to the entire city. Police will still make other marijuana-related arrests as long as the drug remains illegal in the city.

Frey told Arradondo that he wanted an end to undercover operations aimed specifically at marijuana sales.

“I believe strongly that marijuana should be a lowest level enforcement priority and that it should be fully legalized at the state level,” the mayor said in a statement. “That support for full legalization, however, does not negate the need for our officers to make the necessary arrests to get guns off our streets and end the sale of life-threatening narcotic drugs like heroin.”

Hennepin County Chief Public Defender Mary Moriarty said that she called Frey last week to tell him about the racial disparities in arrests, and he promised the arrests would stop.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement that his office has already handled a fourth of the 47 cases by dismissing the charges, sending the defendants to a diversion program or asking for stays that would result in no sentences with the charges reduced to misdemeanors.

He said his office was in the process of dismissing charges against the remaining defendants.

Surveillance video from a nearby business led authorities to an Eagan bank robber, police said.

Just before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, the suspect, 39-year-old Damien James McDonald, entered Associated Healthcare Credit Union at 1460 Yankee Doodle Road and threatened bank employees with a handgun, said Eagan police officer Aaron Machtemes, department spokesman.

McDonald fled the area after snatching a large sum of money, but his getaway car was caught on surveillance video, Machtemes said.

Investigators located the car at a home in 2200 block of West Seventh Street in St. Paul around 8 p.m. A short time later, Eagan police and the FBI executed a warrant and arrested McDonald, who was booked into Dakota County Jail in Hastings on suspicion of felony first-degree aggravated robbery

The FBI is investigating, Machtemes said.

A suspicious bag or package at Union Depot Thursday night caused authorities to halt light rail traffic to the station for about an hour, officials say.

The item was reported to Metro Transit police shortly after 9 p.m., and they worked with the St. Paul Police Department to investigate, said Howie Padilla, a Metro Transit spokesman. The scene was cleared and train service resumed about 10:20 p.m.

10:20 PM: Green Line service has now resumed from Union Depot to 10th St/Cedar Station. Thank you for your patience as we get back on schedule.

— Metro Transit (@MetroTransitMN) June 8, 2018

Buses replaced Green Line trains between Union Depot and the 10th Street station during the outage, while the light rail continued to operate normally west of the 10th Street station.

A teen put a gun to the forehead of a woman carrying a baby in St. Paul early Wednesday and demanded that she hand over either money or her child, authorities say.

After searching the woman’s pockets, he and two accomplices ran off with the woman’s credit card and identification, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday.

Authorities charged one of the three teens, 18-year-old Xavion Tyrece Bell, with aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery.

The other two suspects, including the alleged gunman, are juveniles. One — a 15-year-old — was charged via juvenile petition Friday with first-degree aggravated robbery, according to a spokeswoman with the Ramsey County attorney’s office. The office is still reviewing the case against the third suspect.

Police responded to the 60th block of West Hyacinth Avenue in the city’s North End around 7:15 a.m. Wednesday and spoke to a Spanish-speaking woman through a neighbor who interpreted, the complaint said.

The woman reported that she’d been followed into a parking lot by an SUV.

When she got out of her vehicle, she picked up her baby and was getting things from her front seat when three teens climbed out of the SUV and ran toward her, court records say.

One of the teens pulled out a pistol, racked it and pressed the tip of it to the woman’s forehead before ordering that she give up money or the child, the woman told officers, according to the complaint.

Meanwhile, around the same time, police responded to a report of another armed robbery in the 1300 block of Park Street.

A man there told police three teens jumped out of an SUV and robbed him of his wallet at gunpoint.

The two robberies occurred blocks from each other, and investigating officers suspected Bell and his associates might be involved, the complaint said.

They found Bell and two teens outside Bell’s home in the 100 block of Maryland Avenue. The male victim identified Bell and one of the juveniles as among the group that robbed them, court documents say.

Using a search warrant, authorities say, police discovered these items in Bell’s bedroom: 15 cellphones, a shotgun, handgun and three BB guns, as well as credit cards, bank cards and IDs belonging to victims of past burglaries, robberies or break-ins.

Police also recovered a stolen 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe nearby.

When questioned by officers, Bell admitted to being present at the robbery on Park Street but responded “I don’t know” to other questions, the complaint said.

He denied having any knowledge of the credit cards and other stolen items located in his bedroom and said the guns did not belong to him.

No attorney was listed for him in court records.

Friends and family of Susan Swedell are hoping a ceremony this weekend will help bring attention to her case.

Swedell, 19, went missing during a blizzard in Lake Elmo on Jan. 19, 1988, and hasn’t been seen since.

At 11 a.m. Sunday, Swedell’s friends and family will gather at Christ Lutheran Church in Lake Elmo and plant a crabapple tree in her memory. A social gathering will follow in the church atrium.

There also will be a gathering at 1 p.m. at Lake Elmo Coffee; live music will be performed by Danny Trudeau, a classmate of Swedell’s.

The events are free and open to the public.

The tree planting will be a “visual sign of hope for the family … at Susan’s faith community,” according to a news release from the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center. “It is also their hope that the person or persons who has information on Susan’s case will reach out to law enforcement. Someone knows something.”

“When we were children, we’d run around town looking for as many blossoming trees as we could,” her sister Christine Swedell said Friday. “I fondly remember Sue surrounded by a group of blossoming crabapple trees — her eyes glistening with an ear-to-ear smile —always amazed of the regrowth after a long cold winter. Trees were a symbol of hope and strength for the both of us.”

During a blizzard on Jan. 19, 1988, Swedell finished her shift at Kmart in Oak Park Heights at 9 p.m. and headed home to Lake Elmo to watch a movie and eat popcorn with her mother and her sister.

A half-hour later, a gas-station attendant gave her permission to leave her overheated car at the K Station, a mile from home. The clerk said she saw Swedell get into another car with a man.

Anyone with information about Swedell’s disappearance is asked to call 651-430-7850.

Christopher Endicott, the suspended Lakeville middle school principal previously accused of felony burglary and stalking, was charged Friday with four more crimes.

Endicott now is accused of stealing personal and financial information from employees of the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district, their family members and others.

Endicott, 50, was charged in Dakota County district court with two counts of felony stalking, felony identity theft and felony crime of financial transaction card fraud.

Meanwhile, Endicott was arrested Wednesday by Brainerd, Minn., police on burglary charges filed last month in North Dakota that accuse him of stealing $16,500 worth of rare coins from his in-laws’ Grand Forks home nearly two years ago.

He remained jailed in Crow Wing County on Friday, awaiting an extradition hearing.

Friday’s charges in Dakota County are the result of a computer-hacking investigation by Apple Valley police that began in January and revolved around Endicott and a cell phone and iPad that belonged to the assistant principal of Scott Highlands Middle School in Apple Valley. Endicott’s wife, Andrea, is a counselor and teacher at the school.

Before joining Century Middle School in Lakeville as its principal in 2012, Endicott was the assistant principal at Dakota Hills Middle School in Eagan, which also is in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan district.

According to Friday’s charges:

Police determined Endicott was a suspect after hearing from a school district administrator in January that an unauthorized person may have accessed the district’s information technology system.

Search warrants were executed at Endicott’s work and Apple Valley home, and computers and other electronic equipment were seized. Analysis of the electronics revealed significant personal and financial information about school employees and others, the charges say.

Investigators discovered Endicott made purchases using their credit cards and wrote about accessing several accounts. In one writing, Endicott indicated that he was in “financial ruin,” according to charges.

ALSO ACCUSED OF THEFT, STALKING

Endicott has two other burglary charges pending in Dakota County.

In March he was charged with second-degree burglary and theft for allegedly stealing sports cards from someone who rented his house. An employee of a sports memorabilia store put a value of $738 on the stolen cards, charges said.

Also in March, Endicott pleaded not guilty to a Feb. 26 burglary charge. Prosecutors said that in 2015 he broke into his next-door neighbors’ home in Apple Valley while they were away, pried open a safe and stole two rings. The rings were found in Endicott’s file cabinet at Century Middle School in February and traced back to the neighbors.

On March 13, the Lakeville school board suspended Endicott without pay. His salary this past school year was about $137,000. He had been on paid administrative leave since Jan. 12, the day that police searched his home.

Endicott was charged with stalking on Feb. 8 after he allegedly drove near an Apple Valley police detective’s home twice and to the police station three times in one day. Endicott also stalked the assistant principal of Scott Highlands school, charges allege.

During a search of Endicott’s home, detectives also found paperwork that showed he pleaded guilty to a shoplifting charge in North Dakota in September 2016.

On Feb. 22, Endicott, who was out of jail on bond, was arrested east of Fergus Falls, Minn., on a “pickup and hold” after Apple Valley police discovered he had bought a rifle and written suicidal messages to his family.

He was booked into Dakota County jail the next day on suspicion of the burglary of his neighbors’ home.

NORTH DAKOTA BURGLARY

According to North Dakota court records, Apple Valley police contacted Grand Forks police March 6 after a suicide note was found in Endicott’s journal after his Feb. 22 arrest.

Endicott wrote that he would take his own life in the “near future” and mentioned using stolen credit cards and accessing others’ email accounts.

Endicott also wrote that he took Morgan silver dollar and Canadian Silver Leaf coins from his in-laws, Lauran and Dianne Larson, in July 2016 and replaced them with plastic tubing and sockets “to give the illusion that the sleeves were full,” court charges read.

Endicott also sent his father-in-law a text message on Feb. 22, apologizing for stealing from him and offering his pick-up truck in repayment, charges said.

Reached Friday at his Grand Forks home, Lauran Larson said he’d rather not talk about the theft of his coins.

“Here’s the deal: It happened and I lost some money, but he’s my son-in-law yet and we’re going to go on from there,” he said.

Larson said he has known Endicott for 29 years, yet cannot explain the allegations against him.

“He has a lot of good attributes,” he said. “He made a few bad choices, but he’s a wonderful father to his children.”

Other than a 2011 speeding conviction, Endicott has no previous criminal record in Minnesota, court records show.

BLAIR, Wis. — Authorities say a Waukesha County fugitive apparently broke into a cabin in western Wisconsin, and could be on his way to the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota.

Authorities believe Jonathan Pogreba broke into the cabin southeast of Blair. A neighbor of the property called the sheriff’s department about 6:30 p.m. Thursday to report the break-in.

Waukesha County Sheriff’s officials say Friday that Pogreba left a note saying he took the license plates off a white BMW he is driving and was heading to the Boundary Waters, where he plans to leave the car and travel on foot.

Pogreba is believed to be armed. He’s wanted on charges of second-degree endangering safety, disorderly conduct and battery. A criminal complaint says the 43-year-old pointed a gun at his wife and assaulted her.