TROY, Minn. – A Steele County man, 80 miles from home, Kyle Steven Eckhoff, 48, of Ellendale, was arrested for drugs while parked at a remote cell tower in extreme southwest Winona County. A deputy found Eckhoff’s vehicle after a caller reported a black SUV suspiciously at the driveway into the tower in the 31000 block of Ma Dailey Road. The deputy said Eckhoff was jittery and sweating profusely and making no sense. “Why sweating?” “I’m always nervous around law enforcement.” The deputy said he asked several times for permission to search the vehicle but couldn’t get a straight answer.  The deputy said Eckhoff kept repeating: “I have nothing to hide.” “Is that a yes?” “I have nothing to hide.” When a second deputy arrived, Eckhoff relented. In frisking the vehicle, rhe deputies found an improvised water bong, a marijuana pipe, and a pipe commonly used for meth. Asked then whether he was high on meth, Eckhoff said no. Asked again, the deputies said, he explained he had experienced car problems and pulled over at the tower and smoked some meth. The deputies found a plastic baggy in Eckhoff’s shoes. That, said the first deputy, probably explained why Eckhoff had been wiggling around somewhat frantically in the vehicle’s cab and bobbing up and down – concealing the meth — when the deputy drove up. Originally Eckhoff had explained he was tidying up cookie crumbs in the passenger seat. The meth totaled 1.5 grams, the deputies said. Eckhoff was hauled 30 miles to the Winona County jail and booked four hours later.

Details: Minnesota Statute 142.02 controlled drugs

STEWARTVILLE, Minn. – An Austin driver was injured when she lost control on Interstate 90 just west of the off-ramps into Stewartville and the RST airport. Elizabeth Fae Clennon, 16, was taken into Rochester to a hospital. Her injuries appeared sustainable, said first-responders. The accident was about 9:30 p.m.  Clennon was heading east in a 2016 Chevrolet Tahoe.

STOCKTON, Minn. – Somebody broke into a vehicle and stole a Kobe Bryant collector’s basketball picture card worth $500, a Stockton man told deputies. Two other cards worth probably $100, were also stolen, the man said. The man reported the thefts and his estimate of the cards’ values about 2 p.m. The vehicle was parked in the 8000 block of County Road 23 just north of Stockton.

Not supposed to be this way. The driver of an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile struck another vehicle and rolled onto its side. Nobody was hurt. Interstate 294 was blocked for an hour. The Wienermobile , one of several in an Oscar Mayer promotional  fleet, was between gigs around Chicago.

LEWISTON, Minn. – In a brazen and continuing showdown with authority, a spray-painting grafittist has added more messages in the tunnel-like Lady Slipper Drive underpass entry to Farmers Park on Garvin Brook below Lewiston. The grafitti’s point again was obscure with no apparent social or political messages. Art? Nobody’s quite getting it.

Earlier: More spayed grafitti at Farmers Park bridge

Earlier: New grafitti at Farmers Park underpass

Clean slate no more. Within days of when highway crews painted over accumulated grafitti, the vandal-artist struck back. Image: Steve Lunde

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. – A Chippewa Falls woman pleaded guilty to a 2023 baseball bat and knife attack on a man in the shower at a Lake Haile village house. Laura Feala, 55, was charged with attempted intentional homicide. The man was found in the blood-covered bathroom with 15 stab wounds. Police had responded to a call about a woman with a baseball bat and found Feala screaming, swearing and pacing. In the bathroom was the victim with stab wounds to his left eye and wounds from a bat. He told police he was sure Feala was going to kill him

Feala. Charge: First-degree attempted homicide.

Obscured depth perception? This was the morning after the night before  at U.S.  Highway 14 and Center Street in Utica. The hit-and-run was within a block of Utica’s two taverns. Image: Steve Lunde

August 22 to September 2

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona woman was arrested after her boyfriend told police she came into his bedroom drunk to stab him in his sleep. Arrested was Amanda Lynn Musolf, 35, who police took the hospital to clear her medically for intoxication before jailing.  This was about 10:10 p.m. in the 1050 block of East Howard Street. Actually it was the second police call to the address. In the first call, about 8:25, the man told police that his live-in girlfriend had locked him out and threatened to break all the windows and doors. Police said they thought they had calmed the situation. But, the man said, the argument resumed, still over her smoking tobacco in the house. The man said he retreated to a bedroom, closed the door, and fell asleep, then heard the click of a pocket knife on a table in the next room.  She entered his room and threatened to stab him, he said. The man told police that  he grabbed his own knife from a bedside table for protection and the girlfriend  exited. He called 911. Police located the girlfriend in the house and made the arrest. Police also confiscated a folding knife. Musolf denied pulling a knife, police said.

Musolf. Charged with domestic assault and instilling fear.

WINONA, Minn. – A staff member at the Family and Children’s Center found a marijuana vaping device on a 12-year-old juvenile. Police were called. The devise was confiscated. Police referred the juvenile for prosecution for underage cannabis possession. The Family and Children’s Center, 601 Franklin, offers therapeutic and foster care.

OSHKOSH, Wis. – Two amateur pilots died when their kit-built light plane crashed in a soybean field and burst into flames. The victims were identified as Sean Tommervik, 37, of El Paso, Texas, and James Sullivan, 32, of Nashville, Tennessee. Although their Lancair ES had three seats,  no one else was aboard. The crash was two miles from the giant Oshkosh AirVenture fly-in.

Lancair ES. About 90 of these craft were sold in kits for home assembly. The last kit was sold in 2012. Assembly generally took 2,000 hours.

EAU CLAIRE, Wis.  – An Eau Claire man pleaded “no contest” to a September 2022 shooting death at a suburban Altoona intersection. Xavier Thompson, 36, of Eau Claire entered the plea to a reduced charge of reckless endangerment. The victim, Christopher Conner, 36, of Altoona, who was found with a gunshot wound near Bergen and Bellevue avenue about 12:10 a.m. Taken into custody besides Thompson were Michael Purnell and Kemone Golden.

STOCKTON, Minn. – The role of Winona County officers in the $1 million fraud case against a Stockton woman was to stand by while federal agents searched her property on the outskirts south of Stockton in January, Sheriff Ron Ganrude confirmed. Tammy Wadsworth, 62, appeared in federal court in Minneapolis last week. She was accused of running a franchise operation illegally from her house on Old County Road 23. It was on January 18 that federal agents entered the property abut 8:30 a.m., while the =local officers stood by. The local officers – three sheriff’s deputies and one city officer — were on scene 6 hours and 45 minutes. The indictment claims Wadsworth made false business claims to franchisees and peddled medically unproven techniques and products through the franchisees to their customers.

Earlier: Huge fraud alleged in Stockton-based franchising

Site of January raid. A $465,000 14-room house outside Stockton. Four bedrooms, four baths.

LAMOTTE, Iowa – Police arrested a LaMotte man wanted in Minnesota on a report of terroristic threats against a Lewiston, Minnesota, woman over child support. Taken into custody as a tactical squad stood ready was Steven Michael Conroy, 34. He offered no resistance. This was about 8:30 a.m. His girlfriend, in Lewiston, had told deputies that Conroy had texted from Iowa: “You killed me with child support, and I’ll pay it with lead and flesh.” He also sent a picture of himself in military gear and holding an assault rifle. This was Friday evening. The woman, age 33, said she had just driven 3-1/2 hours home from LaMotte on Friday after a child support hearing. This was Friday evening about 7:05. Deputies reviewed message. Conroy was explicit: “I will kill you.” He said he was on his way. He asked if her “bodyguard” was wearing  Level 4 body armor?  For fear about the woman’s safety, Winona sheriff’s deputies moved her to a safe shelter. Also, deputies inferred the possibility that Conroy might be contemplating suicide-by-police. Winona officers obtained an arrest warrant charging Conroy with threats of violence, aggravated harassment, and domestic assault. During all this, the woman said the female child was safe with friends. After the arrest, Winona authorities were arranging for Conroy to be extradited from Iowa for prosecution.

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man was arrested after his girlfriend told police he had threated to smash a liquor bottle in her face. Police found the bottle and later located Christopher Lee Irons, 43, and arrested him. He denied any threat but was arrested anyway and charged with domestic assault that instilled fear. Police said the couple’s 17-tear-old daughter reported witnessing the threat. The incident was about 11:15 p.m. in the 400 block of Liberty Street on the East Side after a night of arguing.

Irons. Was intoxicated, says girlfriend.

BLUFF SIDING, Wis.  – A motorcyclist died in a head-on collision up Chicken Valley Road at a bluff-top intersection. Deputies said the biker crossed into the opposite lane on a blind curve and hit an oncoming pickup truck. This was about 5:45 p.m. Buffalo County Sheriff Michael Osmond declined to release the victim’s name or detail whether anyone else was injured. The sheriff did say, however, that the man who died was 41 years old and died apparently outright. The crash was near the Chicken Valley Road crossing with Rooster Ridge Lane and Township Road 27 into the Drazkowski bikers’ club.

WINONA, Minn. – Police said they weren’t surprised that a Winona driver, Cayden James Smith, 25, admitted he had been imbibing. A breath check showed Smith’s.blood at 0.15% alcohol, almost twice what’s permitted to drive. This was in a traffic stop about 1:45 a.m. Smith had failed  to stop at a stop sign at Broadway and Lafayette streets on the East Side, officers said. They said his eyes were bloodshot and watery and his speech slurred.