ST. PAUL, Minn. –- Police said that it was in St. Paul where young people were slain September 12 and that their bodies were driven to rural Wisconsin and abandoned. Because St. Paul was where the deaths occurred, Police Todd Axtell said his department has assumed the lead role in a multi-agency investigation. From court documents police reports and other sources, this seems to have been the sequence of what happened:
> The victims had been at a St. Paul tavern, the White Squirrel. Sometime after midnight they were escorted, perhaps herded, into a black Mercedes SUV by at least one man.
> The victims were shot, all in the head, while the vehicle was still in St. Paul. The exact site of the shootings is hazy.
> The Mercedes took Interstate 94 60 miles east to Menomonie in Wisconsin and then north 15 miles where the vehicle was driven deep into a field. The eight-foot corn stalks hid the vehicle, the bodies still inside. Whether this was before dawn is unclear. It may have been late morning.
> A second SUV that had followed the Mercedes, whether immediately or later also isn’t clear. The driver of the second vehicle picked up the first driver and returned to St. Paul.
> A farmer found the black Mercedes in the cornfield in mid-afternoon.
There have been no murder charges. However, Darren Osborne, 56, and his stepson, Antoine Suggs, 38, have been charged with hiding corpses. Osborne was arrested Thursday in St. Paul, the stepson Friday in Phoenix.