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FARGO, N.D. — A federal judge sentenced Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. to death today for the killing of college student Dru Sjodin, saying from the bench that today has been the "most difficult day of my life."

FARGO, N.D. - Jurors on Friday sentenced a convicted sex offender to death for kidnapping and killing University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, whose body was found in a Minnesota ravine nearly five months after she disappeared. It was North Dakota's first death penalty case in more than a century. The state does not have the death penalty but it is allowed in federal cases. Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 53, of Crookston, Minn., looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as the sentence was announced. The jury reached its decision after more than a day and a half of deliberations....

Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. was found guilty today of kidnapping 22-year-old Dru Sjodin from a Grand Forks, ND mall and causing her death in November 2003...

By DAVE KOLPACK, Associated Press Writer 44 minutes ago FARGO, N.D. - A federal jury declared a convicted sex offender guilty Wednesday in the kidnapping and killing of college student Dru Sjodin, whose body was found abandoned in a Minnesota ravine. The verdict against Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. clears the way for the first death penalty deliberations in North Dakota in more than a century. Rodriguez stared straight ahead as the verdict was read. Sjodin, 22, a University of North Dakota student from Pequot Lakes, Minn., was abducted from the parking lot of a Grand Forks shopping mall on Nov. 22,...

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...

CROOKSTON - The body of Dru Sjodin, the UND student who disappeared last November, has been found, authorities said Saturday. Polk County Sheriff Mark LeTexier sobbed as he told volunteers, "Dru is home." He later confirmed that authorities had found Sjodin's body. Volunteers had joined the search for the 22-year-old student on Saturday. A group at Crookston High School broke into applause after his announcement. Sjodin's father, Allan, and her boyfriend were in a trailer at the high school serving as a makeshift command post for authorities organizing the search. Sjodin, of Pequot Lakes, Minn., disappeared Nov. 22 from a...

<p>According to Fox news Dru Sjodin has been found. Conflicting reports though. One ap report says she is home, another says she has been found.</p>

Fox New is reporting that Dru Sjodin has been found, according to the sheriff on her case. There was at least 100 people searching for her today, including border patrol agents and search dogs.

Suspect in missing girl's case a native Laredoan By The Associated Press Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., the man suspected in the disappearance of Dru Sjodin, has been accused of sex crimes before and was a native Laredoan. He wasn't always convicted though. In 1979, he sat in front of a jury facing charges that he followed a woman from a department store to her car and forced her at knifepoint to drive to a remote gravel road. The victim told police Rodriguez raped her twice before ordering her to drive him back. The jury heard testimony and returned a not-guilty verdict,...

A knife in a pool of liquid household cleaner was found in the spare tire well of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.'s maroon 2002 Mercury Sable sedan, according to a source close to the investigation. Investigators could tell that the interior of the car and the trunk obviously had been recently and extensively cleaned, the source told the Herald. But bloodstains found in the car have been matched with Sjodin's DNA, the source said. Other news reports also cite sources for the DNA match of blood samples in the car to Sjodin. Grand Forks State's Attorney Peter Welte has said that he...

We have all watched with anger and repugnance at apparently ONE MORE case of another victim falling prey to a repeat sexual predator. Dru Sjodin, a young, beautiful, loving woman with a loving family and an full life ahead of her, has apparently fallen victim to Carlos Rodriguez, an individual with a long record as a sexual predator, an individual who refused "treatment" for his obsession while incarcerated, an individual who was, ONCE AGAIN, approved for release by YET ANOTHER psychiatrist who should have know better. My prayers and sympathy go out to the family and friends of Ms. Sjodin,...

Unfortunately, it now looks as if the worst has happened in the Dru Sjodin disappearance, and the state is building a strong case that its suspect is a murderer. (Many talk-radio callers to the contrary, there will be a trial to decide that.) Alfonso Rodriguez, having been a violent sex offender previously, the most important thing after putting him out of business once and for all will be to decide how we can best protect ourselves against other repeaters. Forget the death penalty. In states with the death penalty, it is for murderers -- and only a few of those...

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The man charged with kidnapping University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, missing now for two weeks, denies responsibility for her disappearance, his attorney said Friday. "He came out and said, 'I did not kidnap her' " nor does he know her whereabouts, said David Dusek, the public defender handling Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.'s case, after meeting with his client for about 45 minutes. There were also signs Friday that the investigation was being scaled back, though investigators and Sjodin's family remained optimistic. "Dru, we're still looking for you, honey," said Allan Sjodin, the father of the...

Report: Video Puts Suspect At Mall Where Sjodin Worked Police Sergeant: Tape Shows Rodriguez In Lot When College Student Disappeared POSTED: 7:04 a.m. EST December 5, 2003 UPDATED: 7:16 a.m. EST December 5, 2003 Authorities in North Dakota have tapes placing kidnapping suspect Alfonso Rodriguez in the mall parking lot from which authorities believe University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin was abducted last month, a Minneapolis newspaper reported. According to a report on the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper's Web site, Grand Forks police Sgt. Mike Hedlund said the tapes show the 50-year-old kidnapping suspect in a Grand Forks mall...

<p>GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) -- The arrest of a convicted rapist in the disappearance of a college student produced no immediate breakthrough yesterday in the search for the young woman, but the police chief vowed: "Dru, we will find you."</p>

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Volunteer searchers have turned up several "items of interest" in the disappearance of a University of North Dakota student, but nothing that has led investigators to Dru Sjodin. Police on Tuesday sifted through discarded paper, clothes and other items gathered by hundreds of volunteers - some on their knees in the snow - in hopes of finding a cell phone or other links to Sjodin (pronounced shah-deen), who was last heard from over the weekend. Police would not elaborate on the items that were found. Sgt. Michael Hedlund said they did not appear to be significant...

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...

Bloodstains matching Dru Sjodin's blood type were found in the car that police say was used by Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. to abduct her, the St. Paul Pioneer Press is reporting today. The Pioneer Press reported that "sources close to the investigation," said the blood was found in the maroon 2002 Mercury Sable Rodriguez bought at a Grand Forks dealership in June. Sources in Grand Forks, including Police Chief John Packett and State's Attorney Peter Welte, would not comment on the report when told of it Thursday night. The reported blood stains are the first major piece of physical evidence revealed...

Shirley Iverson was home on break from her freshman year in college when a man approached her as she sat in her parked car and asked for a ride. Iverson, just 18 and raised in the small town of Crookston, Minn., said sure.Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. got in and Iverson drove away. What happened next on that October 1974 day in Crookston was Rodriguez's first of several known attacks on women, according to court documents that lay out his history of abuse, sexual assaults and rapes committed between stays in prison. < -snip- > Iverson, who now lives in Oregon and...

ST. PAUL - The arrest of a Minnesota sex offender in the abduction of a North Dakota college student prompted Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to call Tuesday for the death penalty in his state. Pawlenty said he will ask the Legislature to allow juries to impose the death penalty in cases where sexual assaults are coupled with murders or attempts to murder, where police and children are killed and in "other heinous crimes." "As a Minnesotan, as a governor, as a dad of two young daughters, I'm fed up. I'm fed up with these stories where we have children abducted,...