Missing North Dakota Student's Body Found

Yahoo!News ^ | Sat, Apr 17, 2004 | DAVE KOLPACK

[Kaslin]

CROOKSTON, Minn. - 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 volunteers had been near the spot where the body was recovered "probably a dozen times," but the area was covered with snow.

He 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."

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 on $5 million bail.

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 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.

"Your legs are our legs today, and our voices for Dru," said her mother, Linda Walker.

Hours later, before the sheriff's announcement, Sjodin's boyfriend, Chris 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.

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

[Kaslin]

University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, who was last seen Saturday afternoon, Nov. 22, 2003, is shown in this undated family photo. The body of Dru Sjodin, the University of North Dakota student who disappeared last November, has been found, the sheriff said Saturday, April 17, 2004. (AP Photo/photo released by the family)

[EvaClement]

I am thanking the Lord for her life.

May God rest her soul.

May justice be done.

[jocon307]

"May God rest her soul.

May justice be done."

Dittos to that Eva.

[Kaslin]

Indeed

[EggsAckley]

A long thread HERE

[xzins]

Convicted sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 51, ...... investigators testified that blood matching Sjodin's DNA was found in Rodriguez's car. Police said they also found knife in the car that matches a sheath discovered near Sjodin's car.

This is sickening that a man convicted of sex crimes is not controlled better than this. We are not wide-eyed innocents. We have tons of statistics that tell us that sex offenders revert to their crimes....that recidivism is near total across the board.

First offense: Minimum 30 year sentence without parole AND a lifetime sentence to wearing a leg transmitter during a lifetime parole.

2nd offense: Lifetime sentence without parole.

[Kaslin]

Yeah, but mine has the article

[cubreporter]

It all boils down to Political correctness.

Why did he do it?

What kind of life did he have growing up?

We cant' punish him if he is sick.

He can be rehabilitated.

All sick excuses for not punishing someone and putting them behind bars for the rest of their lives when something like this happens. No, they are allowed to roam free and attack yet another innocent, unwitting victim.

It's time for PC to take a hike. It doesn't work! It only works for the perp and not the decent people who have to live through these horrendous losses of their precious family members. It's gotta stop!

[xzins]

Bullseye!

It's time to admit the obvious about sexual offenders.

I have no doubt at all that violent sexual offenders should be executed. That won't happen, so I'm totally in favor of lifetime without parole for those who use violence/kidnapping/etc. in the commission of their crime.

The non-violent type have just as bad recidivism, but I'll give them the deal in my earlier post.

[D-fendr]

I'm with you on the violent sex offenders - there should be a much higher degree of punishment than for other ones.

However, if death is the punishment for rape, then the sick one has a high incentive to kill all his victims.

Criminals know these things, it's part of their "job." If rape is a capital crime, murders of rape victims will go up dramatically.

There needs to be a deterent to the criminal from increasing their crime.

[mlmr]

Frankly, I think that the death toll of rape victims is up pretty high to begin with....

[ccmay]

First offense: Minimum 30 year sentence without parole AND a lifetime sentence to wearing a leg transmitter during a lifetime parole.

2nd offense: Lifetime sentence without parole.

I have a better idea.

First offence: Death by hanging, on the court house plaza at high noon.

[little jeremiah]

Nope. First offense, execution. Never have recidivism that way.

It's fair, it's just, and it's merciful.

[little jeremiah]

I read not long ago (on FR, natch) that until a couple of generations ago, rape was usually a capital crime. That's the way it should be.

[I got the rope]

It was in most states unitil the US supreme court said it was too harsh a punishment.

[little jeremiah]

There were fewer rapes then, BTW. No repeat offenders (once caught).

The SCOTUS has been a very, very bad joke for a long time. Black robed Nazgul, with a few exceptions.

[xzins]

I agree with you, and I can live with it, but I don't think we can make it happen.

I think we can make the other happen.

[little jeremiah]

I know people may disagree with me, but I'm near the point of thinking vigilante justice is the only kind we'll ever have.

I am not an anarchist, (!) and not a libertarian. But I am sickened by what passes for a justice system. I have seen innocent people railroaded (personal friend) and read about vicious subhuman criminals go scott free. This is wrong, and can only be tolerated for so long before society really starts cracking up. There are so many ramifications I don't have time to begin to list them, and you are no doubt as aware of them as I am.

Caning is also necessary, publicly.

[xzins]

It amazes me that someone like Martha Stewart gets pursued relentlessly by the authorities, but this creep can walk the streets to kill again.

[little jeremiah]

What to speak of Clintoon.