body of ... North Dakota student found

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
body of ... North Dakota student found
4
Sat, 04-17-2004 - 5:38pm
My prayers go to Dru's family. I hope the perpetrator gets the death penalty. It has been proven repeatedly that sex-offenders and child-molesters cannot be cured.

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Sheriff says body of missing North Dakota student found

Saturday April 17, 2004

By DAVE KOLPACK

Associated Press Writer

CROOKSTON, Minn. (AP) The body of college student Dru Sjodin has been found, five months after she disappeared from the parking lot of a North Dakota shopping mall, authorities said Saturday.

Sheriff Mark LeTexier sobbed as he told volunteers, ``Dru is home.'' He later confirmed that authorities had found Sjodin's body.

Scores of volunteers had joined the search on Saturday for the 22-year-old University of North Dakota student, who was last seen Nov. 22 the mall where she worked at a Victoria's Secret.

While a handful of Sjodin's relatives continued searching through the winter, official searches had been halted in December because of severe weather and resumed this month.

Bob Heales, a private investigator who has coordinated search efforts for the Sjodin family, said the body was found in a ditch near a county road northwest of Crookston.

Volunteers had been near the spot ``probably a dozen times,'' but the area had been covered with snow, he said.

Chris Lang, Sjodin's boyfriend, said he remembers searching the area, but ``the drifts were 5 feet high.''

``It just kind of feels numb,'' Lang said after learning Sjodin's body had been found. ``I woke up this morning, and I just knew for sure it was going to happen today.

``Now I know she's been at peace for a long time,'' Lang said.

Lang was the last person known to have heard from Sjodin, when she spoke to him by cell phone after leaving work the afternoon of Nov. 22.

Convicted sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 51, of Crookston, has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping Sjodin, of Pequot Lakes, Minn. He was arrested in December and is jailed in Grand Forks, about 25 miles northwest of Crookston, on $5 million bail.

Prosecutor Peter Welte declined to comment Saturday. A judge has ordered lawyers involved in the Rodriguez case not to speak with the media.

At a court hearing last month, investigators testified that blood matching Sjodin's DNA was found in Rodriguez's car. Police said they also found a knife in the car that matches a sheath discovered near Sjodin's car.

Before Saturday's search, Sjodin's parents spoke to a search party of more than 100 people.

Hours later, before the sheriff's announcement, Lang arrived in tears at the school where volunteers had gathered for the search. He and Sjodin's father, Allan, joined authorities in a trailer serving as a makeshift command post.

Heales said Sjodin's friends and family felt relieved Saturday that Sjodin had been found.

``Dru's coming home and that's what we've wanted from the beginning,'' he said. ``We never wanted to go through life without knowing where she was.''


(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

http://wcco.com/national/MissingStudent-Search-aa/resources_news_html

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sat, 04-17-2004 - 7:05pm
Finding her body will give some peace to her family.
cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Sun, 04-18-2004 - 12:10pm
I too was saddened, if not surprised to hear that this young women had been murdered. I hope the person convicted of the crime is locked up forever.

I do wonder however why considering the voters of the two states involved have gone on record as opposed to the death penalty others find it appropriate to subvert the state laws and find ways to kill the one who killed her. Can state's rights be abandoned in this case by those who rant about their importance in other matters?

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-01-2004
Sun, 04-18-2004 - 4:41pm
I can't imagine what it must have been like for her family to be left in limbo, hoping she's still alive, always suspecting the worst. It must have been awful for them. The grieving process is long and hard. At least now they know. It may not help but I'll be thinking about them and wishing them well.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sun, 04-18-2004 - 9:11pm
At least they can bring her home now.