Darly Latterell accused of stealing from Fire Fighters Relief Association charitable gambling fund
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.
Oct. 23, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
KELLIHER -- This small town of 350 people rallied to protect the reputation of two of their own Friday after the news broke that Citizens State Bank of Kelliher President Daryl Latterell was being investigated for theft and was being blamed for killing his wife and himself.
Beltrami County Sheriff Keith Winger dropped the bombshell Friday afternoon at a news conference at the Bemidji/Beltrami County Law Enforcement Center.
Winger told media that Daryl Latterell not only killed his wife and himself early Thursday morning, but that the Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety was investigating "irregularities" of the Kelliher Fire Fighters Relief Association's charitable gambling operation. Latterell was the fire department's gambling manager.
Residents here, although, hesitant to speak to strangers Thursday after the deaths of Daryl Latterell, 51, and his 47-year-old wife, Sally, were first announced were far more protective of the two Friday.
Daryl Latterell -- a former city councilman, mayor, volunteer firefighter and civic booster -- and his wife, Sally, were not only highly thought of here, the thought that he could be accused of stealing from the firefighters gambling fund was unthinkable.
"We're all still in shock. It's all too soon," said James Brown, the loan officer for Citizens State Bank, which Daryl Latterell owned with his brother. "Daryl was a very well-respected man. It's a sad thing."
Brown was only one of a couple people willing to speak about the events surrounding the early Thursday morning deaths of the Latterells.
A woman who answered the telephone at the Kelliher fire hall, where Daryl Latterell was a volunteer firefighter and gambling fund manager, would not give her name and said the department wouldn't comment. The Kelliher fire chief did not return telephone calls.
Another woman who identified herself on the telephone only as the manager of the Kelliher Liquor Store, where the fire department has charitable pull tabs, said that she was aware of Daryl Latterell being investigated by the state.
She added, however, that both Latterells were "close friends" and she would say no more.
Across town, at Thor's Sports Bar, a sign on the building's front door read, "Closed ... Family and Friends Use Back Door." The sign on the back door read, "Closed ... Except for Family and Friends." The signs were a testament to how much this close-knit community does not enjoy the statewide attention foisted upon them by the Latterell tragedy.
Elsewhere around town, the Citizens State Bank reopened Friday, after having closed Thursday afternoon after the Latterells had been found dead in their home at the corner of Fourth Street and Gould Avenue.
There was little activity around the Latterells' house, except for a man and a woman who strolled slowly by and peered at the house about 3:30 p.m. There were no lights on; the same red care and red pickup sat in the driveway; and a bullet hole in the house's southern wall remained.
Few adults were seen on the streets, but there were a few children about town -- out of school thanks to the Minnesota Education conference in St. Paul.
Collectively, it seems, the residents took to the safety of indoors where close friends and family made more sense than the world that was spinning out of control around them.
The Latterells' funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Kelliher, where the two were members. Monsignor Bill Mehrkens and Deacon John Eisbrener will officiate.
The Latterells are survived by two sons, Darin, of Bemidji, and Dathan, of St. Cloud.
Daryl Latterell also was survived by one brother, Larry, of Big Fork, and one sister, Marlys (Charles) Nutter of Woodbury, Minn.
Sally Latterell also was survived by her mother, Mae Larson, of Waskish; one brother, David (Rebecca) Kornell, of Princeton and one sister, Connie Berg, of Bemidji.
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