I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Dec. 11, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
Cass and Wright county law enforcement officials are discussing whether the deaths of a 92-year-old Hackensack woman and an 82-year-old Otsego, Minn., woman are linked to the same suspect.
"I'm aware that investigators from our office, the Wright county (Sheriff's) Department and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are meeting and discussing the two cases," Cass County Chief Deputy Randy Fisher said. "The obvious similarity is two elderly women living alone (were killed)."
In both cases, Fisher said, authorities believe the deaths apparently occurred during burglaries.
The suspect, a 30-year-old Anoka man, has not been charged in either case. And the Pioneer does not name suspects until they have been arrested or charged.
The man, however, was allegedly injured in a fire in the Hackensack house where Carrie Nagel, 92, was killed. He remains in a coma with third-degree burns over 60 percent of his body at a Twin Cities medical facility.
He is a suspect in the Nagel case because he was found severely burned near her house Saturday morning. He told authorities that his injuries were caused in a fiery car crash. But the man's car was not burned, and it contained money and clothing believed to have been taken from the woman's house.
Fisher said earlier this week that the first in Nagel's house was set to apparently hid the burglary and homicide.
Nagel was found later Saturday morning by her daughter, who reported the fire to authorities.
Fisher said the Anoka man is also a suspect in another arson Dec. 3 near Hackensack.
In the Wright County case, Nellie C. Bobendrier, 82, was killed Dec. 1 between 4:15 to 9:15 p.m. in the kitchen of her house in Otsego, about a mile southwest of Elk River, Minn., according to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.
Authorities also speculate that whoever killed Bobendrier was burglarizing her house.
Fisher said if it is determined the two cases are linked, the BCA would be involved in investigating them.
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