ST. PAUL, Minn. – These are early clues that police uncovered in the slaying of four people whose bodies were found in a Mercedes SUV hidden in a rural Wisconsin cornfield two weekends ago:
> A cigarette butt found in the cornfield near the abandoned revealed the smoker’s DNA.
> Shell casings were found in the vehicle.
> Darren Osborne, who has been charged, told police he followed his stepson, Antoine Suggs, from St. Paul to Wisconsin in a second vehicle but didn’t see the bodies in the Mercedes. Suggs also has been charged.
> Osborne said he gave his stepson a ride back to St. Pail.
> A police dashcam in Menomonie, on the route from St. Paul, showed a Mercedes in a parking lot three hours before the abandoned vehicle was found. By the time the officer could check on the Mercedes, it had driven off.
> Police later found droplets of blood in the Menomomie parking lot.
> Police also found blood droplets at a gas station in Wheeler, near where the Mercedes was abandoned.
> Surveillance video at the Wheeler gas station showed Suggs driving the Mercedes, and his step father driving a different SUV.