Double homicide suspected near small Minn. town

Published 8:21 am Tuesday, January 11, 2011

CROMWELL, Minn. — Authorities asked the public’s help Monday in solving the apparent slaying of a man and woman whose bodies were discovered in a sparsely populated area of northeastern Minnesota, miles away from where the man’s burning pickup truck was found a day earlier.

Carlton County Sheriff Kelly Lake declined to immediately release the names of the two victims or how they died but said the case was being investigated as a double homicide. The bodies were found about 3 p.m. Sunday in a home in Red Clover Township, just outside Cromwell, a town with a population of about 200 some 30 miles west of Duluth.

The pickup was discovered on fire Saturday night in the Saginaw area of St. Louis County, about 35 miles away, Lake said.

Co-owner John Lind of B&B Market in Cloquet, which is near Cromwell, said the woman had worked as a meat cutter in his store for the last six or seven years.

“She was a good person. The customers loved her,” Lind told the Duluth News Tribune. “We’re all just in shock about this.”

Charlie Carlson of Cromwell, who was a friend of the male victim for about 20 years, called him “a hard-working guy who did everything in the community for people.”

The house is “off the beaten path” on a back road next to the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation, Carlson said.

“They were well-liked and very well-known people,” Carlson said. “I can’t explain it. He didn’t have nothing of value. He was just a working man.”

Authorities were asking anyone who noticed anything suspicious Saturday in the Albert Road area of Saginaw to call the Carlton County sheriff’s office.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is assisting in the investigation.