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. 17, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
Cass County officials charged a 31-year-old Anoka, Minn., man Wednesday with the Dec. 4 death of a Hackensack woman.
Cass County Chief Deputy Randy Fisher said Michael Richard Evinger, who remains severely injured in a Twin Cities hospital, is accused of beating, killing and robbing 92-year-old Carrie Nagel the morning of Dec. 4 in her house before setting fire to it to erase any evidence.
Since that day, he has been a patient at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, after suffering third-degree burns over 60 percent of his body when he allegedly set fire to Nagel's house.
According to the criminal complaint, the Cass County Sheriff's Department received a call about 8 a.m. Dec. 4 from Nagel's residence, located along Cass County Road 5 east of Hackensack.
The caller identified herself as Nagel's daughter and said she had come to the Nagel residence to visit her. But when she arrived, she found the house full of smoke and she was unable to gain entrance.
A Cass County sheriff's deputy, firefighters and emergency medical personnel responded to the call, according to the complaint.
That same morning, about 5:40 a.m., the same Cass County deputy had responded to a call earlier at a residence near Nagel's. Evinger had walked to the residence and requested medical assistance for severe burns that he had received. He told the deputy he had been in an automobile crash, and that the vehicle had caught fire, causing his injuries.
Firefighters found Nagel dead in her home upon arrival, the complaint states. The body was later examined by Cass County Medical Examiner Michael McGee, who determined in a preliminary report that she died from multiple injuries from blows by a "blunt instrument," and he ruled her death a homicide.
Cass County officials also found that the house appeared as if it had been ransacked and that items were strewn about the house. A broken window was found, and a trail of blood, burnt grass and human flesh led from the house to a vehicle parked about 200 yards from Nagel's house and the house from which Evinger called for help.
The vehicle is registered in Evinger's name, according to the complaint, and Cass County officials found that it had not been involved in a crash or fire. But there was allegedly blood, burned clothing and several items that were later determined to be Nagel's in the car.
In addition, there was partially burned U.S. currency bills found along the evidence trail from Nagel's home to Evinger's car, according to the complaint.
He is charged with second-degree murder, which holds a 40-year maximum prison penalty.
As of Thursday, he remained in severe condition at HCMC, Fisher said.
Evinger also is suspected in the Dec. 1 death of an 82-year-old Otsego, Minn., woman being investigated by the Wright County Sheriff's Department and another house fire that happened Dec. 3 near Hackensack.
In the Wright County case, Nellie C. Bobendrier was killed between 4:15 to 9:15 p.m. Dec. 1 in the kitchen of her house in Otsego, about a mile southwest of Elk River, Minn.
Fisher said Thursday that Cass and Wright County officials have "communicated and exchanged information and evidence." But he added, "I don't want to speculate that the two are related."
He said he didn't know if Wright County officials plan to charge Evinger with Bobendrier's murder.
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