ST. PETER, Minn.— A man and woman in southern Minnesota are accused of dropping off a 5-year-old boy in the woods as punishment for wetting himself.

Lynda Michel, 42, and Gregory Wilson, 32, were charged Friday in Nicollet County District Court with child neglect. Authorities say the boy is Wilson’s biological son and that Michel lives with him and the child.

The boy was found on Aug. 28 walking along a highway south of St. Peter, a community roughly 55 miles southwest of Minneapolis, authorities say. He was crying and wet from rain when a motorist spotted him. He told police he had been dropped off by his “mom and dad” because he had been “naughty.”

A man who was in the vehicle with the couple and the boy told police the man tried to talk the couple out of leaving the boy, authorities say.
The couple told authorities they turned around after a short distance but couldn’t find him. Police found the couple searching for the child, but the couple hadn’t called to report him missing.

According to investigators, officers found “multiple black and blue and red bruises” on the boy’s back, buttocks and hips, indicating they had been caused over time, and Wilson told investigators that he regularly spanked the boy with an open hand. Wilson also faces charges of gross misdemeanor malicious punishment of a child and misdemeanor domestic assault.

The child was taken into protective custody and is currently in foster care, according to court documents that don’t list an attorney for either Michel or Wilson. 

Five years ago, Parker Reimer was a football center and a baseball catcher and spent every free minute playing outside.

Now the 16-year-old from Hudson, Wis., is recovering from two shoulder surgeries and can’t lift anything above his head with his left arm. He drives every other week to OSI Physical Therapy in Stillwater, where he works on weightlifting, stretching and resistance training.

Parker and his mother, Kelly Bridge, and older brother, Carter Reimer, were injured in 2013 when a go-kart driven by a Shriner at the Booster Days parade in downtown Hudson careened out of control and crashed into them.

“It has been really a struggle,” Parker said during an interview at the family’s house. “If (my brothers) are playing a game of basketball in the front yard, I have to sit out and watch because I can’t get my arm up to shoot a basketball. I can’t swing a bat. I can’t play football.”

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As they were waiting for the band, eight members of the Zor Roadrunners, the St. Croix Valley Shrine Club’s go-kart unit, drove by in a synchronized routine. The men, dressed in red fez hats and white dress shirts, “were whipping around right in front of us,” Kelly Bridge said.

“I said: ‘You know what, guys? They look like they’re going really fast today. Let’s back up a little bit,’ ” she said.

According to police reports, the accident took place about 11:30 a.m. Milton Helmer, then 72, was driving the third go-kart in formation as the group made a U-turn in a single-file line.

Video footage shows the go-kart going up on two wheels and Helmer struggling to regain control. The go-kart then drives into a crowd of spectators on the sidewalk.

“He hit the accelerator instead of the brake and drove straight into us,” Bridge said. “He hit Carter and flipped him upside down, so his head went this way and his feet went that way. With Parker, it just landed on Parker and pushed him back. They were both completely under the go-kart.

“I had put my hand out to try and stop it, like you would in a car accident,” she said. “It was dragging me along. I was screaming, ‘Take your foot off the gas!’ ”

A man who had been watching the parade helped lift the go-kart off the boys, she said.

Carter rolled out, but Parker didn’t move.

“I was yelling, ‘Somebody pull him out! Somebody pull him out!’ ” she said.

Police said it appeared as though the accident happened when Helmer took “corrective action” to avoid rolling his go-kart, and “it did not appear as though Helmer intentionally or recklessly left the roadway.”

Helmer told police that he had been a member of the Zor Roadrunners for several years.

“Helmer stated he didn’t remember what exactly happened and was very shaken up over the incident, continually asking how the injured persons were doing,” according to the police report. “(He) stated that he thought there were people in the road on the west side of Second Street, and he was unable to move far enough over to make an adequate turn in the roadway.”

Parker, who was 11, suffered the brunt of the injuries. Carter, who was 12, had a broken leg, a large hematoma in his leg and several bruises. Bridge’s right wrist and left knee were seriously injured, and she has had two surgeries.

In December 2017, Bridge sued the Shriners, Helmer and their insurance companies for medical expenses and additional damages in St. Croix County, Wis., Circuit Court. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Oct. 16.

Shriners officials and Helmer, who lives in Beldenville, Wis., declined to comment. Their attorney, Rick Mundt of Winner, Wixon & Pernitz in Madison, Wis., also declined to comment.

MEDICAL BILLS PILING UP

During an interview at the family’s house in Hudson, Bridge sorted through dozens of medical bills stacked on the dining room table. Among the billers: HealthPartners, Pediatric and Young Adult Medicine, Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare, Target Pharmacy, Twin Cities Orthopedics, Hudson Physicians, Stillwater Medical Clinic and St. Croix EMS.

Her medical bills have topped $58,000; Parker’s have totaled about $55,000.

The Shriners last month offered to settle, but Bridge said the offer — $30,000 to cover Parker’s medical expenses and $40,000 to cover hers — was insufficient.

“It wouldn’t even cover the medical,” she said. “The Shriners should be accountable for this accident, and they should be liable for our losses. They have paid for nothing. They have paid for zero throughout this entire ordeal.”

The Shriners raise money for 22 Shriners Hospitals for Children, which provide specialized care to children with orthopedic conditions, spinal-cord injuries, burns, and cleft lip and palate, regardless of the families’ ability to pay.

In a document filed in court, the Shriners denied many of the claims made in Bridge’s lawsuit, including a claim that the Shriners failed to provide adequate instruction and training before permitting Helmer to use and operate the go-kart.

Bridge’s attorney, Tom Weidner of Eckberg Lammers in Stillwater, said he was “surprised and disappointed” that the Shriners were not accepting responsibility for the accident.

Bridge, a single mother and a kindergarten teacher at Eagle Point Elementary School in Oakdale, said she had hoped to avoid taking the Shriners to court.

“They said, ‘We’ll cover it at the end,’ but they’re not covering it at the end,” she said. “I didn’t want to throw the Shriners under the bus … because I think they stand for a good cause, but after dealing with them on this, I have definitely seen that actions speak louder than words.”

The go-kart landed on Bridge’s purse, and the family’s three cellphones were shattered, she said.

“They never paid to replace those,” she said.

No one from the Shriners checked on the family after the accident, she said.

“I’m still so baffled by that,” she said. “No one came to check; no one apologized. The driver never even got out of the go-kart.”

CAN’T PLAY THE FAMILY SPORT

The Bridge-Reimer family is a football family. They got into the sport because Trevor has albinism — a lack of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes — and is visually impaired.

“Football was one of the only sports that he could play,” Bridge said. “We tried it, and everybody ended up liking it.”

The boys started playing flag football when they were 5 and moved to tackle when they got to third grade.

Trevor, 19, now plays center for the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, where he is a sophomore majoring in social work. Carter, 17, a senior at Hudson High School, is captain of the school’s football team.

Parker, a junior at the high school, was “my most athletic by far, and the one who spent the most time outside,” Bridge said.

“He has never been a video-game kid,” Bridge said. “He went from being outside all the time to being inside all the time. Losing football and weightlifting was a very emotional loss. He became really introverted. It has been heartbreaking to watch.”

Said Parker: “I didn’t really get a chance to see how good I would be.”

Parker had to wear a shoulder brace for the first year after the accident.

Instead of playing with friends after school, he said, he had to go home to rest. “Getting through the school day was a struggle,” he said. “I was in constant pain, and I just wanted to sit at home and try and get rid of the pain for a little bit.”

He had two surgeries — one in October 2017 and one in January — and missed 34 days of school last year.

“It would have been better to wait until he was older to have the surgery, but everything was just stretched too far out,” Bridge said. “His shoulder would pop out of place, and he would have to pop it back in. It’s kind of a crapshoot because we don’t know how much more he’ll grow.”

He is limited to lifting just one pound in front of him and 10 pounds on the side.

“Things like water-skiing or tubing are off-limits,” Bridge said. “He can’t do any pulling on that arm. It would just pull and slip, and we’d be back to square one. That is for the rest of his life. No contact sports.”

TRYING OTHER ACTIVITIES

Parker said he has been feeling better since his last operation. He has taken up bass fishing. He and friends go to the St. Croix River, Lake Mallalieu in North Hudson or to a private lake owned by a friend, he said.

Football season is hard for him, Bridge said.

“It’s just a lot of the fun stuff, the camaraderie, he misses that,” she said. “It is what it is, we can’t change it, but it’s a hard season for him to get through, especially with both brothers playing. Watching him watch … that is hard.”

Parker tried running cross-country, “but it’s pretty boring,” he said. “It’s, like, how can people do this?”

He also tried playing drums in the marching band, but his limited mobility was a hindrance.

Now, he’s working on relearning magic tricks — a hobby since before the accident — and trying piano again.

Bridge, 46, also is still recovering. She had surgeries in 2016 and 2017 to repair the damage to her right wrist.

She takes six Advil a day for the pain.

The accident left her unable to perform household chores like scrubbing the kitchen floor or changing the beds, she said. Cooking dinner is a struggle.

“My right arm gets so fatigued and so worn out,” she said. “Washing my hair, I mean it sounds ridiculous, but it takes everything out of me. It brings me to tears.”

She said bills for Parker’s surgeries are still coming in, and co-pays are owed for his physical therapy appointments.

“I cannot afford any more,” she said.

Divers recovered a body Sunday morning in Lake Minnetonka while searching for a boater who went missing Saturday night.

Hennepin County sheriff’s divers found the body around 10:15 a.m. near Big Island on Lake Minnetonka.

Deputies began searching that area since Saturday night for a missing boater. The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office will identify the person and determine the cause of death.

The incident is under investigation.

A West Fargo, N.D., man who twice ran for mayor of Hopkins was convicted Friday in St. Paul of threatening to kill a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright, in St. Paul, ruled against Robert Philip Ivers, 65, last year when he sued a life insurance company.

After losing the case in January 2017, Ivers responded by sending a series of threatening letters and calling a court employee to say he was “crazy angry” at the judge and described himself as a “walking bomb.”

“This defendant has a long history of using words to frighten and intimidate,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Allyn.

On Nov. 9, 2017, Ivers filed an additional civil lawsuit alleging the same facts as those in the case he lost before the judge.

He was referred to two volunteer lawyers who did not believe he had a valid legal claim, to which Ivers reacted angrily.

One of the lawyers described Ivers as becoming “intensely angry” and quoted him saying, “you don’t know the fifty different ways I planned to kill her,” and, “this (expletive) judge stole my life from me.”

After the lawyer reported the threats that Ivers made during the phone conversation, two marshals went to a residence in West Fargo to speak with him about the threats.

When confronted, Ivers became extremely agitated and screamed that he was glad the judge was scared.

Ivers ran unsuccessfully twice for mayor of Hopkins. He was convicted of threatening to murder a federal judge and of making the threat across state lines.

As soon as Robert Molin Jr.’s brother saw three people in a St. Paul parking lot, he knew “there was going to be a problem,” according to a criminal complaint unsealed Monday, charging a 21-year-old in the fatal drive-by shooting of Molin.

The killing of Molin, 26, outside the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension headquarters was apparently connected to a St. Paul homicide that happened four days earlier.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office charged Antoine Jamar Grasty on Aug. 17, the day after Molin was shot. But the case remained sealed until Monday, after police arrested Grasty, of Minneapolis, on Friday.

Generally, a criminal complaint is sealed so the subject of a warrant doesn’t know he or she has been charged as police seek them out for arrest.

Molin was found shot in the head in the driver’s seat of a car on Aug. 16 about 2:20 p.m. and died soon afterward.

A brother of Molin’s told police that the conflict began after he pulled into the parking lot of the East Side Liquor Store on Maryland Avenue, near Clarence Street. A man, later identified as Grasty, and two other people walked toward Molin’s brother.

“Immediately, (Molin’s brother) knew that there was going to be a problem because” he “is close friends with a person that was just charged in a homicide in St. Paul. Grasty and his associates were connected to that homicide victim,” according to the criminal complaint charging Grasty with second-degree murder — drive-by shooting.

On Aug. 12, 21-year-old Devan L. Goode had been fatally shot down the street from Harding High School. Prosecutors charged Malik Dontarius Turner, 19, saying Goode was killed during a dice game robbery.

MOLIN’S BROTHER CALLED HIM AFTER ENCOUNTER WITH SUSPECT

On Aug. 16, during the encounter by the liquor store, Grasty showed Molin’s brother a handgun with an extended magazine and Molin’s brother drove away, according to the complaint against Grasty.

Molin got a call from his brother, telling him about the situation and where he was.

Grasty and the others entered a Chevrolet Equinox and started driving on Maryland Avenue. Molin pulled up behind the Chevrolet in a Nissan Maxima and then Molin’s brother, in a different car, also pulled behind the Chevy.

The BCA’s surveillance system captured video of what happened next. When the Chevrolet appeared to stop at a red light, Molin’s brother pulled up on one side of the vehicle and Molin drove up on the other side, according to the complaint.

After the light turned green, the Chevrolet’s driver continued going. Molin’s brother pulled over and Molin “then sped up to get alongside the passenger side of the” Chevrolet, the complaint said.

The passenger-side window of the Chevrolet was down and a handgun could be seen pointed out the window toward the Nissan. That’s when Grasty fired the gun, a teen in the Chevrolet later reported, according to the complaint.

The teen told police they had gone to the liquor store and saw Molin’s brother. A young man with them wanted to fight with Molin’s brother, who “drove around the liquor store trying to get them to fight,” according to the complaint.

The shooting happened in the eastbound lanes of Maryland Avenue between Phalen Boulevard and Barclay Street.

A police spokesman said Monday that Molin’s homicide remains under investigation.

In 2016, Grasty pleaded guilty to possession of a pistol without a permit.

Grasty served more than seven months in the Ramsey County workhouse and was released in October.

He was no longer on probation when he left the workhouse, according to a Ramsey County Community Corrections spokesman. The conditions of Grasty’s probation had included having no contact with gang members, and not using or possessing firearms.

An Eagan man who ran a network of personal care assistant services fraudulently obtained more than $4 million in Medicaid funds, according to charges unsealed against him Monday.

Victor Nenghimobo Clement, 53, was barred from participating as a Medicaid provider due to a previous conviction in Ramsey County for Medicaid fraud.

In the current case, an investigation by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit named Clement as the leader and found he arranged for other people to open PCA agencies, which he managed, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court by the Attorney General’s office.

Clement also arranged for people to set up four additional companies — which the complaint referred to as shell companies — “for the sole purpose of concealing Clement’s stolen funds,” according to the complaint.

Part of Clement’s sentence in his past felony case was to pay $75,000 in restitution to the Minnesota Department of Human Services and he used funding from his network of fraudulent PCA agencies to pay more than $49,000 of that amount, according to the charges.

“What makes this case especially troubling is that this individual was barred from participation in the Medical Assistance program,” said Attorney General Lori Swanson.

Five other people are charged in connection to the case. The Attorney General’s office said Dedra Fayatte Wilson, 29, of Newport; Inemo Seimokuma Clement, 55, of Tacoma, Wash.; Amiete Priscillia Clement, 47, of Eagan; Janaei Jatuan Reed, 30, of Woodbury; and Theresa Ann Jordan, 45, of Blaine, “actively participated.”

Victor Clement was booked into the Ramsey County jail on Friday. An attorney was not listed for him in the court record.

John Chitwood, an attorney representing Amiete Clement — who is Victor’s sister — said Monday he’s still reviewing the allegations in the complaint, but he noted “she has absolutely no criminal convictions or past allegations of anything.”

CHARGED WITH 15 FELONIES

After Victor Clement’s previous company came under investigation, he operated other PCA services agencies out of a building on St. Paul’s University Avenue: AppleOne Home Care Services Inc., Ambitious Care Services Inc., Blessing Home Health Services Inc. and Human Services Associates Inc, according to the investigation.

The PCA agencies obtained nearly $3.9 million from DHS for services that were not eligible for reimbursement because Clement was an excluded provider, plus the agencies billed DHS for at least $248,000 in PCA services that did not occur, the complaint said.

Though the businesses didn’t disclose to DHS that Clement was involved in running them, the investigation turned up evidence. That included: Business records seized from Clement’s house included paystubs that named Clement as the corporate officer of AppleOne; Clement listed AppleOne as his employer from “2010-now” when he completed an application to rent an apartment in 2012; and email addresses linked to the companies were connected to Clement’s LinkedIn page and cell phone.

One recipient of PCA services reported Clement showed up unannounced at her house two weeks before her interview with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit “and instructed her not to speak with anyone about her PCA services,” according to the complaint.

Another person receiving PCA services described Clement as “the King,” the complaint said.

Clement is charged with racketeering between 2012 and 2015, three counts of aiding and abetting theft by false representation, four counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle, six counts of concealing criminal proceeds, and four counts of engaging in business of concealing criminal proceeds.

Ryan Faircloth contributed to this report.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — A Minnesota man is charged with assaulting a police officer for shooting arrows at three officers, striking one of them and prompting the other two to shoot the suspect.

Stearns County prosecutors on Monday charged 31-year-old Ramey James Olson of Alexandria with three felony assault counts as well as theft of a motor vehicle and burglary. Bail was set at $2 million.

Authorities allege Olson stole a pickup in Osakis on Thursday and drove to Sauk Centre, where he smashed through a garage door and entered a home.

Olson allegedly took the homeowner’s compound bow and shot an arrow through the left forearm of Deputy Paul Orvis. The complaint alleges Olson also fired arrows at a state trooper and a Melrose officer, who fired their guns and wounded Olson.

FARIBAULT, Minn. — The Faribault state prison is on lockdown after authorities say an inmate punched a corrections officer in the face.

A Minnesota Department of Corrections spokeswoman said that three of the responding officers also were hurt.

The Corrections Department said an inmate punched the corrections officer at 11:30 a.m. Monday in the dining hall.

The Star Tribune reported the four injured officers were taken to the hospital. The inmate was put in restrictive housing.

In late August, the prison was also on lockdown after what the Corrections Department called “an investigation.” No details were given then.

In July, authorities say corrections officer Joseph Gomm was fatally bludgeoned by an inmate at the Stillwater state prison. The inmate has been charged with murder in Gomm’s death.

After his death, union leaders representing corrections staff called for more prison officers and changes to inmate discipline rules. They have said that state prisons are understaffed and officers are not properly equipped for the job.

White Bear Lake will receive more than $96,000 from Minnesota to combat drunk driving beginning in October.

The DWI Officer Grant is awarded to cities within Minnesota counties with the most alcohol-related-injury crashes. The money pays for additional traffic enforcement officers focusing specifically on DWIs.

The officer chosen for the White Bear Lake program is already a top performing within the the department, White Bear Lake Police Chief Julie Swanson told city council members recently. The council voted unanimously at its Aug. 28 meeting to take part in the 2-year grant program.

The officer “does really well with identifying a drunk driver, processing it, and obviously when they do a lot of them, they do a much better job in court.” Swanson said.

The goal of the program is to educate people before they go out and ensure that good decisions are made, she said.

“I think we will see an increase in our DWI (numbers) … but I also expect that after the two years those numbers are going to go down because word travels. It’s a small town,” Swanson said

DWI ARRESTS ON THE DECLINE

In 2008, Minnesota law enforcement arrested nearly 36,000 individuals statewide for DWI offenses. The number of arrests decreased to around 25,000 in 2017, representing a 31 percent drop.

In White Bear Lake, DWI arrests have also decreased from 194 arrests in 2017 to 102 arrests, so far, in 2018.

“If you put more (officers) specifically looking for (DWIs) on the street, you are going to curb (the trend),” White Bear Lake City Council Member Bill Walsh said.

HOW THE GRANT PROGRAM WORKS

Walsh said that Swanson, and her staff, are great at watching for new grant opportunities for the city and applying for them. He also said that he feels proud that White Bear Lake was the only suburban city in Ramsey County to receive the dedicated DWI Officer Grant.

The $1.6 million statewide grant program is funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Mike Hanson, director for the Office of Traffic Safety, a division of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

Grant requirements include:

• The DWI officer must work between the hours of 5 p.m. to 5 a.m.
• No more than 15 minutes can be spent on calls not related to traffic enforcement or DWIs.
• If assisting others officers on unrelated calls for longer than 15 minutes, the city must pay for that time.

REDUCING PREVENTABLE TRAGEDIES

Intoxicated drivers “are still one of the top four causes of preventable fatal, or serious injury, crashes in Minnesota,” Hanson said.

From 2012 to 2016, these Minnesota counties accounted for 183 drunk-driving related deaths and 768 alcohol-related serious injury crashes. The counties also account for 66 percent of all DWI incidents statewide, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

Those “numbers are completely unacceptable,” he said, “One impaired driving death is unacceptable because it is a completely preventable offense. It does not have to happen and there is no excuse anymore.”

White Bear Lake police will begin increased DWI enforcement Oct. 1.

FARGO — It’s been four years since Tommy Bearson was mysteriously killed, and investigators have yet to name a single suspect or motive behind the 18-year-old university freshman’s death.

Bearson was only four weeks into nursing school at North Dakota State University when he went missing on Sept. 20, 2014. Three days later, his body was found in an RV sales lot in north Moorhead, far from his campus dorm room.

To the Fargo community, Bearson was one of hundreds of new faces at NDSU, still in the process of establishing his place. In his hometown of Sartell, Minn., Bearson was beloved: an all-star basketball player, brother, boyfriend and alumnus of a small Catholic school.

“I think he would’ve been a great leader of the community because he was already — a good role model, good mentor for kids his age and even younger,” said Janelle Von Pinnon, publisher of The Newsleaders of St. Joseph and Sartell, newspapers for the towns near St. Cloud.

When news broke of Bearson’s disappearance, Von Pinnon said Sartell was in shock.

Most freshman, like Bearson, are “just learning to find their own wings and become their own person,” Von Pinnon said. “So, it’s just a very senseless thing to have had happened.”

Mike Knaak was helping lead the St. Cloud Times newsroom when Bearson was reported missing. From the start, Knaak said, it was a big story for several reasons: “a missing local person, the circumstances, the seeming lack of any leads.” Also, Bearson and his family were well-known in the community.

“Fargo, like St. Cloud, is a pretty safe place to live. Your chances of being killed are pretty small. How did this all happen?” Knaak said. “As far as I can tell, there still aren’t any real good answers on that from the investigation. Four years later, it seems like we’re in the same spot we were a few days after the crime.”

But Knaak said one thing is certain: Somebody knows something.

Greg and Debbie Bearson, Tommy’s parents, believe the same.

“To the people involved in Tom’s death,” Greg Bearson wrote in an email to The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead newspaper, “You will never find peace as long as the knowledge of your guilt is walking beside you everywhere you go and with everyone you meet.

“Real peace rests with the ability to admit guilt. Until then, who you are is a lie to everyone you meet,” Greg Bearson wrote.

WHAT WE KNOW

Moorhead Police Chief Shannon Monroe said his department is the lead agency in the investigation, with help from Fargo police and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Monroe said he couldn’t comment on whether any persons of interest have been identified in what’s been ruled a death by “homicidal violence.”

Detectives are releasing no new information as part of the four-year anniversary of the killing, though they talk about it each fall as students return to campus. They contemplate whether any undisclosed information would be worth sharing with the public.

“It’s always been something that we just want to make sure the public knows we’re still working on, and there’s still a need for us to keep as much of the case protected as possible,” Monroe said. “But Tommy is not forgotten in our eyes. We’re going to continue working on it.”

Monroe said in addition to Bearson’s relatives, who are hurting all the time, another group deeply affected by his death are the investigators working the case.

“They do not want to go into retirement and have an open case like this,” said Monroe, whose predecessor, David Ebinger, recently retired from the department.

Police had sought the public’s help in finding Bearson’s silver iPhone 5 and a white Nike Air Jordan left shoe, which were never found. Given that police have been unable to find the phone, potential clues that it could contain remain out of the reach of investigators.

The last post from Bearson’s Twitter account was a cryptic, chilling one that police have said had nothing to do with his death.

“Dude it’s jake come pick us up,” the tweet said. “We are so lost and we are going to die. Just get somebody.”

The message was sent to Cody Mead — who lived at the house where Bearson was last seen alive about 3:40 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014.

The message, which originated from Bearson’s phone and Twitter account at 1:23 a.m. that Saturday, was actually sent by Jake Wenzel, a longtime friend of Bearson’s from Sartell.

Bearson’s body was discovered the following Tuesday at about 11 in the morning. The RV lot where it was found in Moorhead is more than five miles from where he was last seen alive.

Bearson’s family issued a statement in 2015 calling on those who last saw their son alive to take polygraph tests, suggesting then that some had not.

What happened between the time Bearson went missing and when his body was found is unknown.

Greg Bearson said his family is “in regular contact with law enforcement and remain confident that one day there will be justice for our son Tom.”

“This is an active case and we can’t thank law enforcement enough for their efforts and support of our family,” he added.

Not releasing more information about the case puts investigators in a tough spot, Knaak said.

“You don’t know if they’re not doing anything because of competence, or if they’re not doing anything visible because they’re trying to solve the case and make sure it sticks,” he said. “Are the Fargo-Moorhead area law enforcement people proceeding by being very cautious and quiet, or are they really a blank page?”

‘ONGOING HEARTACHE’

Had Bearson continued at NDSU, he would likely have graduated this spring. He’d probably still be playing basketball and visiting his parents on weekends and holiday breaks.

On the Saturday that he went missing, he had plans to drive home that afternoon. Instead, his parents came to Fargo frantically wondering where he was and what was wrong.

They described the ensuing days as living hell.

“I think the community grieves for his family,” Von Pinnon said. “I think it’s an ongoing heartache for the town and for the community and especially for his family.”

Knaak said the Bearson family, through the Tom Bearson Foundation, has put on many events and has sponsored scholarships to keep their son’s memory alive.

Greg Bearson said his son’s “spirit continues to live on through the hearts of so many people. He will never be forgotten and his legacy will endure.”

Follow @WhokilledTommyB on Twitter for more information on the upcoming “Who Killed Tommy” podcast. Send questions, comments and tips to 701-969-0806.

A 34-year-old St. Paul man attempted to rob a Pizza Hut delivery driver at knife point on Friday night, according to criminal charges.

Jacob Tobias Todd was charged Monday in Ramsey County District Court with first-degree attempted aggravated robbery. Todd and an unidentified man approached the Pizza Hut delivery driver in an alley outside their apartment at 700 Grand Ave., according to statements the driver gave police.

The driver assumed the men were his customers and told them the amount they owed, the complaint said. Todd responded by pulling a knife from his pocket and telling the driver that he and the other man would take the pizzas without paying, court records say.

The man who was with Todd asked him to put the knife away, the complaint said, but Todd refused. The driver fled in his vehicle with the pizzas.

The driver told authorities he returned to the Pizza Hut at 975 Grand Ave. and learned that Todd had called the restaurant denying he was the person with the knife and demanding the pizzas.

The Pizza Hut manager told the driver to attempt another delivery, court records say. When the driver returned to the alley outside the apartment, he saw Todd waiting for him in the same spot. The driver left and called police, who arrested Todd upon arrival and recovered a knife from his pocket, court documents say.

Todd denied committing the robbery or ordering pizza in an interview the next morning, the complaint said. He said he was threatened by delivery drivers earlier that night, and said his friend “Ben” used his phone for something “pizza-related,” but probably not from Pizza Hut, according to the complaint.

Todd did not provide further information about “Ben” to police, court records show, and an investigator noted that Todd smelled like alcohol during the interview.

At two of Minnesota’s most troubled prisons — Oak Park Heights and Stillwater — assaults by inmates against inmates increased by 20 percent in one year, according to figures released Monday by the state Department of Corrections.

The increase is less than that of inmates’ assaults of prison employees, which more than doubled in the year ending June 30.

The increase in assaults against prisoners at the two prisons is not typical. Out of nine prisons in the state, six had decreasing numbers of such assaults. Only one other — Willow River/Moose Lake — showed an increase in assaults against prisoners.

Statewide, the number of assaults against prisoners was unchanged from fiscal year 2017 to 2018, at 497.

That means assaults against inmates were more than twice as common as assaults against prison employees.

The statistics give context to the one homicide and several high-profile assaults that have occurred recently at the Stillwater and Oak Park Heights prisons.

Inmate Edward Muhammad Johnson has been charged with first-degree murder in the July 18 stabbing and bludgeoning death of corrections officer Joseph Gomm at the Stillwater prison.

The maximum-security Oak Park Heights prison has been the scene of dozens of assaults against guards, including 10 that occurred in a single weekend in March.

In the year ending June 30, 188 corrections officers were assaulted, according to figures released by the department on Sept. 4. At all nine facilities, assaults against employees increased 66 percent to 188.

But most of the increase can be blamed on Stillwater and Oak Park Heights. In one year, Oak Park Heights’ assaults against officers increased 74 percent to 66; and Stillwater assaults more than doubled, to 59 assaults.

The spike in violence against employees has brought new calls for more staffing at state prisons. The union presenting prison workers, AFSCME Council 5, has said that the prisons are understaffed and unsafe.

Department spokeswomen Sarah Fitzgerald said in an email Tuesday:

“These assaults cannot be attributed to a single cause. The cause of assaults range from mental illness to gang issues to personal issues. Stillwater and Oak Park Heights house the most dangerous offenders in Minnesota.

“We are actively working to identify patterns of assaults and prevent future assaults. … The safety of our corrections officers and all those in our facilities is paramount.”

The department, like the union, is requesting more staff.

A statement from the department said it has been asking the Legislature for the past eight years for 150 more corrections officers — a request that has not yet been granted.

One couple awoke to find a stranger in their bedroom, rummaging through the nightstand. Another man heard a noise, peered out his window, and a saw a male standing on his roof and looking back at him.

St. Paul police are investigating seven burglaries or attempted burglaries that happened throughout the day on Saturday in the Prosperity Heights and Hayden Heights neighborhoods. In each of the cases, people were inside their homes when the burglaries occurred or confronted a suspect in their yard.

“People are supposed to be their safest in their homes,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman. “It’s alarming that we have people breaking into occupied houses, burglarizing them and even being so bold as to walk into bedrooms where people are sleeping. It’s unnerving. Our goal is to find the suspect or suspects, hold them accountable and make sure that people can feel safe and secure in their homes when they go to bed at night.”

Four of the burglaries happened on East Maryland Avenue, between Kennard and Van Dyke streets.

Two more happened off Flandrau Street, on Orange and Hyacinth avenues.

Another was on Hyacinth Avenue, in the area of Hazel Street.

They occurred Saturday from 4:15 a.m. to 11:10 p.m.

In the first case of the morning, police believe the suspect used a garbage can to boost himself up to an open window and enter the house. The couple woke up to a male in their bedroom and chased him out of the house. He got away with a debit card.

In another case, a woman reported about 9:20 a.m. that she had been sleeping upstairs and her husband was in the backyard with their children. He came inside and asked if she had packed the television away because it was missing. Then, they realized it had been stolen, Ernster said.

Three more burglary or attempted burglaries happened Saturday evening.

After a suspect went into the porch and a garage of a home, the homeowner saw the suspect on the roof of his garage. The male fled. Officers set up a perimeter, police used a K-9 to try to track him, and they requested the Minnesota State Patrol helicopter to help search for him, but he was not found, Ernster said.

Police are working to determine whether one or multiple suspects were involved in the burglaries, Ernster said.

In each of the cases when a suspect was seen, he was described as a black male.

The suspect or suspects were seen wearing a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and sometimes gloves.

In one case he was described as appearing to be 16-years-old, 5 feet 6 inches tall and skinny. In another case, a suspect was described as 6 feet tall with a medium build. Someone else described a suspect as 17 to 22-years-old; another man said he was in his 20s.

Police ask anyone with information to call them at 651-291-1111.

The police department also requests that anyone who lives in the area and has home surveillance systems check to see if it captured anything to help police identify the suspect or suspects.

Elsewhere in St. Paul, in the Summit Hill, Macalester-Groveland and Highland Park neighborhoods, police have been investigating about seven burglaries of occupied homes that occurred between Aug. 14 and Sept. 4, Ernster said.

To help safeguard against burglary, Ernster said people should make sure to keep their doors and windows locked; their properties well-lit at night; get to know their neighbors to share information about what they’re seeing; and call police any time they see suspicious activity.

By LUKE MEREDITH and RYAN J. FOLEY

AMES, Iowa (AP) — A star collegiate golfer from Spain was attacked and killed by a homeless stranger while she was playing a round alone near her campus in Iowa, police said Tuesday.

Celia Barquin Arozamena, who was working toward joining the pro tour while finishing her degree at Iowa State University, was stabbed by the assailant Monday morning and left dead in a pond on the golf course, police said. Her body was found after fellow players saw her abandoned golf bag.

Collin Daniel Richards, a 22-year-old with a history of violence, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Investigators said Richards had told an acquaintance he had “an urge to rape and kill a woman” and that he was living in a homeless encampment near the golf course in Ames, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Des Moines.

Police said they recovered a knife and bloody clothing linked to Richards, who completed a prison sentence in June and has prior convictions for burglary and harassment.

Barquin was remembered as one of Iowa State’s most accomplished golfers and a bright engineering student. This year, she won the Big 12 championship and an amateur tournament in Europe and competed in the U.S. Women’s Open Championship.

“Losing one of our student-athletes is like losing a child,” Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said, choking back tears at a news conference. “We’re all devastated and heartbroken.”

Pollard said Barquin had “broke down in tears” when she found out she had been named the school’s 2018 female athlete of the year — an achievement she had been set to be honored for during Saturday’s football game. Instead, the team will wear helmet decals with Barquin’s initials to honor her.

Ames Police Cmdr. Geoff Huff said homicides are rare in the city, and it’s “very troubling for something like this to happen in broad daylight.”

It’s the second fatal stabbing of a female college student in Iowa in recent months. An immigrant from Mexico is charged in the July slaying of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, who vanished while out for a run in the town of Brooklyn.

Police were called to Coldwater Golf Links around 10:20 a.m. Monday to investigate a possible missing player after golfers found her bag and no one around it. Officers found Barquin’s body with several stab wounds to her upper torso, head and neck, according to the complaint filed Tuesday against Richards.

A police dog tracked Barquin’s scent to a homeless encampment near the course where Richards had been living in a tent, the complaint said. Officers found Richards with several scratches on his face consistent with fighting and a deep laceration in his left hand that he tried to conceal, it said.

“What did he do to her?” an acquaintance of Richards allegedly asked officers who were searching the area.

That man told investigators Richards had said recently he had “an urge to rape and kill a woman” while they were walking near the course, the complaint said. A second acquaintance told police that Richards arrived at his nearby home Monday “disheveled and covered in blood, sand and water.” He bathed and left with his clothes in a backpack.

Investigators later recovered shorts with blood stains and a knife that Richards allegedly gave to two other people after the slaying, the complaint said. Those two individuals were driving Richards out of town, but he asked them to drop him off near the camp so he could get his tent.

Huff said no one else had been charged, but that the investigation was ongoing.

Professional golfer Sergio Garcia, a native of Spain and one of Barquin’s favorites, tweeted that he was heartbroken by the news, saying he’d had the pleasure of meeting Barquin and calling her a “special person.”

A judge ordered Richards jailed on a $5 million, cash-only bond during a court appearance Tuesday.

Richards, who faces life in prison if convicted, reported in a financial affidavit that he has no job. Paul Rounds, a public defender assigned to represent him, filed paperwork asserting that his client didn’t wish to speak to investigators.

Barquin, a native of Puente San Miguel, Spain, was finishing her civil engineering degree this semester after exhausting her playing eligibility in 2017-2018, according to the university .

She was one of the most accomplished golfers in school history. In April, she became the second women’s golfer at Iowa State to earn medalist honors at a conference tournament when claiming the 2018 Big 12 Championship with a three-shot victory.

Barquin, who was ranked No. 69 nationally by Golfweek, ended her collegiate career with a fourth-straight NCAA Regional appearance and earned All-Big 12 Team honors for the third time. She was the third Iowa State women’s golfer to compete in the U.S. Women’s Open Championship.

Her former team announced Tuesday it was pulling out of the East & West Match Play in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to be with friends and family and to grieve their loss. Women’s golf coach Christie Martens said Barquin was an “outstanding representative of our school.”

“We will never forget her competitive drive to be the best and her passion for life,” Martens said.

Richards left prison in June after serving seven months for violating the terms of his probation, following convictions for burglary, theft, criminal mischief and harassment, according to the Iowa Department of Corrections. Records show he was arrested weeks later after he was found passed out near an Ames liquor store, telling police he took antidepressants before drinking alcohol.

Since 2014, Richards had been charged with abusing a girlfriend, stealing a pickup truck, using a baseball bat to smash a car window and burglarizing a gas station. In one case, the Iowa State Patrol seized a long knife from him during a traffic stop. In another, he threatened to return to a convenience store to shoot clerks who caught him shoplifting.

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Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.

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MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin health officials report more cases of severe bleeding linked to synthetic marijuana containing rat poison.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services said Tuesday the agency has confirmed 16 additional bleeding cases. That brings the number of people affected in the outbreak to 80.

The latest confirmed case is in Fond du Lac County. Other cases have been confirmed in Dane, Milwaukee, Outagamie and Rock counties.

Victims have ranged in age from 16 to over 50 years old. There has been one death in Wisconsin associated with the outbreak.

Since March, the department has been investigating an outbreak of severe bleeding in people who have used synthetic marijuana, commonly called “Fake Weed”, “K2” or “Spice.” The product contains a chemical used in rat poison.

Investigators say the driver of a Hummer was putting away his cellphone when he rear-ended a car in Dodge County earlier this month, killing a woman and her daughter, according to a Rochester Post Bulletin report.

Tanner Kruckeberg, 24, of Dodge Center allegedly told the Minnesota State Patrol that “he was looking down at his center console area to put away his cellular phone” when he crashed into the back of a Mercury Milan, the Post Bulletin report said.

The driver of the sedan, Rachel Marie Harberts, 43, and her 8-year-old daughter, Emerson, were both killed; Harberts’ 12-year-old son, Jaxon, was injured but is recovering, according to the family’s CaringBridge page.

The State Patrol obtained a warrant to search the Hummer’s sensing and diagnostic module, airbag control module and any other event data recording devices, the Post Bulletin report said.

Alcohol was not a factor in the crash, the State Patrol said.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has turned its investigation into the fatal shooting of William James Hughes by St. Paul police officers over to the Ramsey County attorney’s office, the state agency said Wednesday.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office has “been reviewing the evidence as it has been gathered since this investigation began,” spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein said Wednesday. “We are committed to being thorough and diligent in our review and hope to have a decision made in the coming weeks.”

The BCA began its investigation when Hughes was killed Aug. 5 in the Summit-University neighborhood.

St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell released body camera footage of the incident on Aug. 17, saying two officers open fire after Hughes, 43, raised a gun “in a sweeping fashion over the officers.”

The confrontation with Hughes began after a 911 caller reported on Aug. 5 at 2:34 a.m.: “Multiple gun shots. 905 St. Anthony (Ave.) on the second floor” and then hung up, according to a transcript of the call released by police on Friday.

The first officers to arrive, Vince Adams and Matt Jones, entered an enclosed porch, Axtell said. Adams knocked on an apartment door and a man could be heard saying, “I will kill you” and then Hughes opened the door, Axtell has said.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi previously said his office will analyze all the evidence gathered by the BCA to decide whether the officers’ use of lethal force was justified under the law.

Choi requested prosecutors conduct their review simultaneously with the BCA’s investigation and the BCA agreed to present his office with evidence as they collected it.

FARGO, N.D. — A North Dakota man accused of helping to kill a pregnant woman tightened a rope around her neck after his girlfriend sliced the baby from the victim’s womb, a prosecutor said Wednesday, later suggesting the girlfriend couldn’t have restrained the expectant mother alone.

William Hoehn is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind, who was eight months pregnant when she was killed in August 2017.

Brooke Crews, who then lived with Hoehn, pleaded guilty last year in the killing and is serving life in prison without parole . Hoehn has said all along that he didn’t know Crews had planned to kill Greywind.

Hoehn initially told police he arrived home Aug. 19 to find Crews cleaning up blood in their bathroom. Hoehn said Crews presented him with an infant girl and said: “This is our baby. This is our family.”

Hoehn said he took garbage bags containing bloody shoes and his bloody towels and disposed of them away from the apartment complex.

Defense attorney Daniel Borgen said in his 10-minute opening statement Wednesday that Greywind was already dead when Hoehn entered the bathroom. Hoehn then helped cover up the crime, Borgen said, noting that his client has confessed to that.

“He helped her. He shouldn’t have,” Borgen said. “He should have immediately called police.”

But prosecutor Ryan Younggren said Crews couldn’t have subdued Greywind without Hoehn’s help. When Hoehn entered the bathroom, Crews told him that she wasn’t sure if Greywind was dead.

“He goes and gets a rope, puts it around her neck, pulls it tight and says, ‘If she’s not dead, she is now,’” Younggren said in a 50-minute presentation Wednesday.

Kayakers found Greywind’s body in late August, wrapped in plastic and dumped in the Red River. It is still unclear how she ended up there. A medical examiner determined Greywind had bled to death.

Crews and Greywind had been friends, and Greywind had texted her mother shortly before she disappeared to say she was going to Crews’ apartment. After Greywind was reported missing, police searched Hoehn and Crews’ apartment three times in six days but found no trace of blood.

Crews originally told police that Greywind had given her the child. Crews later told police they had argued, saying she pushed Greywind down and knocked her out before cutting her open.

Crews is on a list of potential witnesses, but prosecutors have not said whether she will be called. The state called five people Wednesday, including Greywind’s parents, Norberta and Joe.

Greywind’s death prompted U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., to introduce Savanna’s Act, which aims to improve tribal access to federal crime information databases and create standardized protocols for responding to cases of missing and murdered Native American women . A similar bill has been introduced in the U.S. House.

MILACA, Minn. — Mille Lacs County and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe have reached an agreement for policing the tribe’s reservation in east-central Minnesota.

The agreement that took effect Tuesday resolves a dispute that came to a head two years ago when the county terminated its law enforcement agreement with the band, ending 25 years of cooperation between the tribal police department and the county sheriff’s office.

Band leaders blamed the impasse for an increase in crime and opioid abuse, saying it left tribal police with insufficient authority to investigate crimes on its reservation.

“The past two years have been tragic and difficult years on the Mille Lacs Reservation,” Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe chief executive Melanie Benjamin said in a statement.

County Attorney Joe Walsh said the new mutual aid agreement is very similar to the old power-sharing agreement, but spells out more clearly the roles of each agency.

Among other things, the agreement grants tribal police officers authority to work alongside county deputies in three townships on the south end of Lake Mille Lacs that include the main reservation and will increase the overall law enforcement presence in the area.

However, the deal doesn’t resolve a larger disagreement between the county and the band over reservation boundaries that was at the heart of the dispute over police powers. The band believes its reservation consists of 61,000 acres set aside in an 1855 treaty with the federal government. The county contends the reservation is limited to about 4,000 acres.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has cleared the way for the release of a convicted serial rapist.

The court Tuesday declined to review a petition by the Minnesota Department of Human Services to review the case of Thomas Duvall.

In July, the state Court of Appeals ruled Duvall should be allowed to be released into the community under supervision.

The 63-year-old has spent the last 30 years locked up for the rapes of teenage girls in the 1970s and 1980s. He was civilly committed as a psychopathic personality in 1991 and sent to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program.

Human Services Commissioner Emily Piper says she had opposed Duvall’s release “out of a deep concern for public safety.”

The Star Tribune reported that Duvall is expected to be released to a secure group home in the Twin Cities this fall.