GREEN ISLE, Minn. — Police focused the search for a suspected political assassin on a rural area five minutes east of Green Isle, his hometown. A Buick sedan registered to Vance Boelter was found abandoned in deep grass a few yards off State Highway 25. Nearby was a cowboy that was similar to one that Boelter was wearing after eluding police after the shootings int wo suburbs north of Minneapolis. The sedan and cowboy hat were along a tree line. The terrain is mostly flat and heavily wooded, not far frm the Minnesota River 50 mies upstream from Mankato. This was roughly 100 miles from the north Minneapolis suburbs where state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were assassinated early Saturday and near where state Senator John Hoffman and his wife were shot and wounded critically. Although the assailant had abandoned his Ford Explorer at the Hortman house after the assassination and fled on foot, friends told police that Boelter owned three vehicles in all. In the Green Isle area, federal, state and loval police began a search of homes and outbuildings. They encouraged residents to keep their doors locked and their vehicles secured. Boelter was believed armed and dangerous. Meanwhile the FBI posted a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Assassin’s get-way car? Left in tall grass five miles east of Green Isle.
Change of clothes. Police say surveillance video shows that Boelter changed clothes and donned a cowboy hat after the shootings.
Cowboy headgear. As found near abandoned sedan.