ROCHESTER, Minn. — A man implicated in the 2022 overdose death of a Rochester woman is headed for prison. Timothy Daniel Loftus, age 44, was sentenced to eight years. Loftus pleaded guilty to felony possession of a controlled substance and concealing the body of 28-year-old Tia Mercedes Arleth. Loftus admitted providing fentanyl to Arleth. The body was found later in a blue tarp sealed with rope and duct tape. Loftus was arrested based on surveillance video from city buses that showed him purchasing a blue tarp. Other video showed him hooking up a trailer containing a blue tarp at his address. Ninety minutes later the trailer was back without the blue tarp. His cellphone data showed that Loftus had traveled to where Arleth’s body was found and that he stopped there nearly 10 minutes.
Loftus. Receiving credit for 731 days already served locally.