After startled cry, UND senior vanishes (Dru Sjodin)

Star Tribune ^ | November 25, 2003 | Chuck Haga and Richard Meryhew

[maggief]

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Dru Sjodin finished her shift at the Victoria's Secret store at 4 p.m. Saturday, then did a little shopping at another store in the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks.

As she walked to her car, the 22-year-old University of North Dakota senior from Pequot Lakes, Minn., used her cell phone to call her boyfriend in the Twin Cities. They talked for about 10 minutes, he later told authorities, until the call ended with a startled cry from Dru:

"Oh, my God! No!"

Nobody has heard from her since.

A few hours later, there was a second brief and voiceless call to her boyfriend, and the signal from her cell phone was tracked to a rural area near Fisher, Minn., 13 miles southeast of Grand Forks.

Throughout the city Monday, people took up her disbelieving cry: "Oh, my God, No!"

(snip)

[from occupied ga]

Look back through history and you will find millions upon millions of criminals who qualify for the title, "dumber than dirt".

True, but the cell phone records will probably have been checked by now and if he's lying the police would most likely have arrested him.

[Catspaw]

I posted a link to a story about Laurie Depies in #39.

[r9etb]

Police have eliminated the boyfriend as a suspect as of last nite's 10pm news.

If the story is correct, it appears that they have not eliminated the fact that he is a putz. Did he try to call back? Was he at all concerned that her call had ended as it did? If so, then why did it fall on a roommate to call the cops? This guy will (or should) be hating himself for the rest of his life.

My take is that this girl -- cute, blonde, and probably bubbly -- was friendly to a whackjob, who subsequently decided that they were an item. When she told him to go away, he did the typical whackjob thing, and grabbed her.

I certainly hope I'm wrong, and that it's another Elizabeth Smart type situation, but I don't think she's alive. However, given that it's North Dakota in winter, she's probably not buried, or if so, not too deep.

[cyncooper]

Good. The faster they eliminate suspects the better.

[Askel5]

=== creeps think that a legitimate part of that legitimate job is helping them out with their masturbation fantasies.


As do well over 90% of those who abduct, assault, sexually abuse, ritually torture and snuff women.

There may be no predicting which porn addicts can manage their addictions, but police records evidence that in well over 90% of sexually-related crimes, it's safe to predict the perp was a porn addict.

[cyncooper]

Thanks--I saw it after I posted.

[maggief]

Looks like her purse was in her car, which was left at the mall.

http://kare11.com/news/news-article.asp?NEWS_ID=55555

Video link

[JennysCool]

From the boyfriend: ""She's a great person. I don't know why anyone would want to do anything to hurt her. This is very difficult."

THAT sounds a little too rehearsed. Those kind of pat quotes always raise the red flag with me.

[irgbar-man]

I'd rather hear her say "eat lead, pervy devil!" (BANG x6) myself.

[cyncooper]

I see the media is careless with the facts, as usual. Which report is correct?

From the article you link:

Dru Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes, Minn., was last seen late Saturday afternoon, as she was leaving a lingerie store in the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks where she worked.

From the article at post #54:

Sjodin left work at Victoria's Secret in Columbia Mall at 4 p.m. Saturday; she spent nearly an hour shopping in the mall, finishing in Marshall Fields about 5 p.m., Hedlund said. While in that store, Sjodin began a 10-minute cell-phone conversation with her boyfriend, who lives in the Twin Cities area.

I'll bet she was last in Marshall Fields and not Victoria's Secret, and maybe in the scheme of things it doesn't matter, except if they're hoping to get people shopping at those stores at that time to wrack their brains if they saw anything that might aid in the search, the misinformation could be less than helpful.

[texasbluebell]

Another technique would-be assailants use is to approach a woman who just got into her car, tap on the window, wave some money and say, "You dropped this." When she rolls down the window to express her gratitude and take the bill, he makes his move.

Some guy, with very bad drugged-looking eyes, did something similar to me -- tapped on my window just as I had gotten in my car, motioned for me to roll down the window.

But I knew better than to roll down my window, and my first move every single time I get in my car is to automatically lock the doors, so they were already locked. I don't wait for the automatic lock to work when the engine gets going.

This is a terrible story for this young woman. And in the middle of the afternoon too.

[Ispy4u]

I guess we will soon see. The case may go cold, as they tend to do after a week or so. I hope they manage to find her alive and well.

Did you see the post from irgbar-man saying that the boyfriend was supposedly cleared. I can't find anything on that can anyone else?

[Catspaw]

The articles I posted in #54 are from the Grand Forks ND paper. I'd expect them to have more specific information than the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which is where maggiefluffs found her story on Dru.

[WackyKat]

I have heard recently of people in parking lots offering to let people smell samples of perfume they are supposedly selling at discount prices. The samples they are using are really ether which render people unconscious almost immediately. Everyone, please be careful out there.

My "Urban Legend" nerve is tingling.

But watch out for strangers in hotel bars, they'll drug you and steal your kidney!

[Devil_Anse]

Yes, weirdos are attracted by all sorts of things. And IMO, fetishists are among the weirdest of the weird.

If I owned a hosiery store--or a lingerie store, for that matter--I would be tempted to man my telephones with deep-voiced men, maybe just for a day or so, just to see the reactions. Funny thing, male perverts usually run the other way when they see or hear a normal man.

[toast]

They have a record of her purchase at Marshall Fields.

This whole thing hits kind of close to home. I live in the Twin Cities but my wife and I were in the Grand Forks Colombia Mall 3 weeks ago. She even dragged me though the Victoria Secret. Our family's cabin is about 4 miles outside of Pequot Lakes.

It's just kind of freaky to think I probably passed by this girl not too long ago.

[Devil_Anse]

PS I am emphatically NOT saying that a man must have a very deep voice to be normal.

[maggief]

The way I understand it that quote is from the "former" boyfriend.

[WackyKat]

There may be no predicting which porn addicts can manage their addictions, but police records evidence that in well over 90% of sexually-related crimes, it's safe to predict the perp was a porn addict.

Most violent criminals love guns. Should we therefore ban guns?

And what is a "porn addict" anyway?

Citation of materials from the Traditional Values Coalition website not allowed

[JennysCool]

Yup.