As search continues for Dru, another young woman fights off an attack
Chuck Haga, Star Tribune
Published November 30, 2003 MISS30
http://startribune.com/stories/462/4239954.html FERTILE, MINN. -- The teenage clerk locked up at Al and Laura's Foods at 7:13 p.m. Friday, four minutes after a co-worker had clocked out. Another employee had left at 7:02, but neither of the girl's friends was still in the store parking lot as she walked to her car.
Someone else was.
According to what she later told police and friends, a man waiting in the lot approached the 17-year-old high school senior, hit her in the head, forced her into his car and drove off.
But as he slowed about three-quarters of a mile from the store, perhaps for a traffic sign, she jumped from the moving car and fell to the ground. She got up and ran to the nearby home of Brian Lindberg, a wrestling coach at her high school, who called 911.
"At first I thought she had had an accident or hit a deer," he said. "She had blood on her forehead, and she was pretty confused, but she said someone had taken her, and she jumped from his car.
"She saved her life by what she did," Lindberg said.
Coming six days after the apparent abduction of a 22-year-old woman from a mall parking lot in Grand Forks, N.D., less than 50 miles away, the attempted abduction set Fertile, population 893, ablaze with flashing lights.
By Saturday morning, however, authorities had determined that the incident was not related to the Nov. 22 disappearance of Dru Sjodin of Pequot Lakes, Minn., Polk County Sheriff Mark LeTexier said.
Grand Forks police also issued a statement, saying investigators had ruled out a connection "and are handling it as a completely separate investigation."
Authorities were not saying how they concluded there was no link, but they were treating it as a credible account of an attempted abduction.
"We're still looking for an adult male, 5 feet 10," LeTexier said late Saturday.
Connected or not, reports of an assault on another young woman in this low-crime region left people stunned.
"This really freaks you out," said Samantha Kveno, 18, who also works at the store. "This is Fertile!"
Authorities have not named the girl, but friends and co-workers have identified her. The Star Tribune is not naming her because of safety concerns. The girl was treated for injuries at "a nearby medical facility," LeTexier said. He would not identify it, but the closest major hospital is Altru in Grand Forks. She was released Saturday morning, he said.
Al Pierson, who owns the grocery store with his wife, Laura, and has talked to investigators, said they were told the abductor had "struck her in the head and knocked her senseless."
LeTexier said she was not able to describe her attacker beyond estimating his height. She said the inside of his car smelled of cigarette smoke but could not identify the car.
"She just ran," LeTexier said. "She didn't look back."
Buttons for hugs
In Grand Forks, members of Sjodin's family said they had been briefed on the Fertile incident and would trust authorities to determine whether there was any connection with Dru's disappearance.
If unconnected, the Fertile case "hampers our investigation to some degree," said Sgt. Mike Hedlund of the Grand Forks police. "It detracts attention," he said, and investigators who were peeled off the Sjodin case "unfortunately were not able to follow up on leads in this situation."
Linda Walker, Dru's mother, making her first appearance in Grand Forks after waiting last week at her home in Pequot Lakes, said at a news conference that the reward for the safe return of Dru, a senior at the University of North Dakota, had jumped to $140,000.
Friends and others at Sun Country Airlines, where Walker works, have pledged $100,000, she said. The family and an anonymous donor had offered the initial $40,000.
"Please keep Dru in your prayers," Walker said, speaking for about 20 relatives.
Earlier Saturday, about a dozen family members fanned out through the Columbia Mall shopping center to pass out buttons and fliers bearing Dru Sjodin's picture. Paul McCabe, one of 15 FBI agents from Minneapolis working on the case, accompanied them.
"Yes, I do need one -- someone took mine," said Kim Torgerson, manager of a shoe store, as she was offered a flier.
"I wish the best for you," she told Charity Pankonin, 28, of Maple Grove, one of Sjodin's cousins.
Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown wore a button and offered the family encouragement.
"Words can't express what our community feels," Brown told Pankonin. "Let us know how we can help."
Authorities called for 200 volunteers "in good physical condition" to help search a location in Grand Forks County today for Sjodin, who disappeared after leaving the Victoria's Secret store in the mall, where she worked.
Investigators have focused on an area around Fisher, Minn., about 10 miles east of Grand Forks, where a call was traced to her cell phone. It was widened to Crookston, Minn., about midway between Grand Forks and Fertile, because the cell phone signal could have carried that far, officials said.
Sjodin finished work at 4 p.m. on Nov. 22 and shopped for about 20 minutes at another store. Her boyfriend has told investigators that she was talking with him on her cell phone when the call ended abruptly with her startled cry, "Oh, my God!" or "Oh, no!"
It was difficult for some family members to go to the mall, Charity Pankonin said, but "this is where she was," she said, and it might help find her.
"And it helps us," she said.
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