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Suspicious death in Faribault ruled a homicide
The Faribault Police Department has announced it’s now investigating the circumstances of a "suspicious" death in a home as a homicide. On Monday, police initially conducted a welfare check around 2:15 p.m. on the 20 block of Mitchell Drive, where officers found a man dead inside a home.
FARIBAULT, Minn. (FOX 9) - After the "suspicious death" of Gary Lehmeyer in Faribault, Minnesota, was ruled a homicide investigation by police, authorities have announced that a "person of interest" has been apprehended and linked to a vehicle that had been stolen from his property prior to him being found.
On Feb. 5, police conducted a welfare check around 2:15 p.m. on the 20 block of Mitchell Drive for Lehmeyer, 76, when they found him dead inside the home.
Faribault Police Chief John Sherwin held a press conference the following day to announce an active homicide investigation was now underway, saying, "we have been able to determine that this was actually a homicide," after police had, "quickly realized that the [victim’s] car was absent from the residence."
According to an update provided by Faribault police Friday, around 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 5, an Iowa State Patrol Trooper conducted a traffic stop on Lehmeyer’s vehicle on Interstate 80 in Dallas County, Iowa. The stop was initiated prior to Lehmeyer being found dead.
The driver of the vehicle, a 32-year-old woman, was arrested on charges related to the traffic stop, with an additional charge of motor vehicle theft later added by Iowa police.
Faribault and Iowa authorities took Lehmeyer’s vehicle into custody, which has since been transported to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) for forensic processing.
According to police, evidence recovered from the vehicle has since established probable cause linking the woman to the theft of Lehmeyer’s vehicle, and she is now a person of interest in his death.
Police have previously stated that information suggests the crime was not random, with Sherwin saying on Tuesday, "We believe that there was some type of relationship between the victim and the offender."
On Friday, officials clarified that the woman and Lehmeyer, "were engaged in a legally qualifying domestic relationship at the time of his death."
An autopsy is currently underway by the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office, but "preliminary results show that the victim died of homicidal violence. There are wounds that are consistent with trauma to the body," Sherwin said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is assisting in the investigation, which remains active.