This one hurts
Missing student's body found
Saturday, April 17, 2004 Posted: 5:49 PM EDT (2149 GMT)
(CNN) -- The body of missing college student Dru Sjodin was found around noon Saturday, Donald Osborne, the mayor of Crookston, Minnesota, told CNN.
The body was found just west of Crookston, near the Minakwa Country Club golf course, he said.
Sjodin, 22, disappeared November 22 after leaving her job at a Victoria's Secret shop in a Grand Forks, North Dakota, mall. She was on the telephone with her boyfriend as she walked to the car, and he said he heard the phone go dead.
Convicted sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez, 50, was charged December 1 with her kidnapping after authorities found a knife and blood matching Sjodin's DNA in his car. Rodriguez has pleaded not guilty to the kidnapping.
Later, a knife sheath was found near Sjodin's car in the mall parking lot. The sheath was sold at a local store and only with a knife of the type found in Rodriguez's car.
After her disappearance, a shoe belonging to Sjodin was found beneath a bridge along the bank of the Red Lake River. The bridge was on a highway heading into Crookston, Rodriguez's hometown, about 25 miles east of Grand Forks.
A Minnesota State Patrol helicopter hovers over an area where the body was discovered Saturday.
According to the affidavit filed for Rodriguez's arrest, Sjodin's call to her boyfriend ended at 5:04 p.m. with her saying, "OK, OK." At 7:42 p.m., an outgoing call from her cell phone was made to her boyfriend, but only static could be heard. The call lasted 55 seconds and was made at a rest stop near Crookston, the affidavit says.
Rodriguez was released from prison last May after serving 23 years for the rapes of two women and attempted rape of another woman.
Official searches for Sjodin were suspended late last year because of winter conditions, although family members continued the search on their own. Saturday was the first day official searches were restarted.
posted by John Allore @ 4/17/2004 07:00:00 PM
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