ZUMBRO FALLS, Minn. – Antagonisms that led to the killing of a 73-year-old man at his rural home Friday may have roots in a May 2012 accident involving a four-wheeler, according to a family friend. After the ATV accident, in which one son died, the father, Edward Riley, had written another son, James, out of a will for the family farm. James now stands accused of hammering and stabbing his father to death. In the 2012 accident, an ATV with three buddies aboard went into the Zumbro River. A brother, Philip Michael Riley, 34, of nearby Hammond, was trapped and drowned. Neither of the other two men on the vehicle, including James, was badly hurt. Sheriff Rodney Bartsh said he never determined who was driving the ATV but that poor judgment was involved. “You put three people on an ATV, you make them very unstable,” Bartch said at the time. “They are not designed for that many people on one.”
