Armed home intruder holds couple hostage
LAKE CITY, Minn. – A Lake City couple told police they were terrorized by a masked and armed female intruder who held them captive in their house for 3-1/2 hours and demanded money. They were not harmed physically. In the end, the woman went out on a patio and they locked her out. They hid in a fruit cellar until they were reasonably confident the woman had left, then called police. The couple gave this account to police:
> The husband and wife were having a quiet evening, one of them preoccupied at the dinner table and the other watching television in the living room.
> They weren’t aware that a masked woman had entered the unlocked front door. “You should really lock your doors,” the intruder said through a ski mask. This was about 9:15 p.m.
> The intruder had a gun, a knife and a police club.
> The woman demanded money. The couple responded that they didn’t keep money in the house. She then wanted credit card numbers and passwords. Then she wanted to be taken to an ATM. In the course of “negotiations,” the couple came up with $400.
Lake City. Population 5,300. On far north Wabasha County on the Mississippi River’s Lake Pepin. The community is a summer tourism destination. Lots of sailing occurs from two boat harbors. There is an up-scale lake-side population of condos and stand-alone residences, largely retirees from Rochester, 40 miles away, and the Twin Cities, 60 miles away. The median household income is $71,000.
> The intruder apparently had an accomplice. She made a call to someone with directions to get to the house.
> The woman lingered nonchalantly. She smoked cigarettes and drank an orange soda.
b The couple eventually gave the woman $400 cash.
> After three hours or so, the woman walked out on a patio. The couple locked the patio door behind her and scurried to lock every other door.
> They hid in the basement and called police. This was about 12:30 a.m.
> Police picked up a ping from a cell phone stolen from the couple. The location: 12 miles south near Zumbro Falls near State Highway 60 and Wabasha County Road 2.
R.I.P.: Mike Delong
WINONA, Minn. – Michael Dean Delong, a retired biology professor at Winona State and a Mississippi River scholar, died at age 65. In 1995 he established the university’s Large River Studies Center. He was the lead editor of the second edition of the book “Rivers of North America.” He was the author/editor of eight books in all. He wrote 40 peer-reviewed research papers. He made 200 oral presentations at scholarly conferences. In 2019, he was awarded the International River Science Award for service to river science. He was a founding editorial board member of the international journal River Research and Applications. For many years he was the biology chair at Winona State. He held a doctorate in entomology from the University of Idaho.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1959-2024
Iowa governor sets up tornado disaster aid
DES MOINES, Iowa — Governor Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation for six counties stricken by tornadoes, thunderstorms and hail. The proclamation qualifies hundreds of households for $5,000 in state recovery grants. The counties: Allamakee, Cass, Des Moines, Fayette, Henry and Lee.
News summary at mid-week: April 17, 2024
COMMERCE: Shopping around for cars? Soon a shorter drive
GOVERNANCE: City pursues wastewater phosphorous purge
GOVERNANCE: House joins Senate against subminimum wages
ENVIRONMENT: How bad Iowa tornadoes? Damage being assessed
CRIME: Prison for Galesville online teen sex prowler
CRIME: Brutal, bloody attack inside couple’s place
CRIME: Step by step: What happened that fatal night
RESCUE: Scared but OK: Search of marshes finds lost driver
FAITH: Bishop readying up his pitching arm
COLLEGES: Shaky take-off: Rochester college aviation program
COLLEGES: Online WSU nursing program rates high
Seven railroad freight cars derail in Iowa
MASON CITY, Iowa — A slow-moving freight train derailed in the Union Pacific yard in Mason City. No one was injured. The cars, some on their sides, had non-hazardous cargoes of soybean meal and potash. The accident was about 10:10 p.m. Mason City is a northern Iowa UP crossroads. A major north-south line connects Des Moines and St. Paul via Owatonna, Faribault and Northfield. There also is an east-west granger line into Minnesota. The derailment blocked 19th Street Southwest near South Pierce Avenue
Awaiting a crane. The railroad dispatched equipment to lift cars upright. Also a clean-up crew.
College scores
Baseball: UW-LaCrosse and UW-Oshkosh, postponed
Softball: UW-LaCrosse and UW-Eau Claire, postponed
Shopping around for cars? Soon a shorter drive
Automobile Row. Soon all three of Winona’s new car dealerships may be a hop, skip and a jump from each other. The Chrysler Winona dealership, now on Huff Street, has posted a sign that it’s moving adjacent to Sugar Loaf Ford, which is immediately across Highway 61 from the Dahl dealership with several General Motors and Totota lines. Image: Steve Lunde
Update planned on Lake McGregor sand project
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis. — The Army Corps, which runs Upper Mississippi River navigation, plans a wildlife rehabilitation project on 200-acre McGregor Lake behind its Guttenberg, Iowa, dam. The project would slow sand build-up in shipping channels. A display of the plan has been set up at the Prairie du Chien library on Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. The project, the Corps noted, would improve lake habitat for backwater fish species, increase vegetation growth, and improve the species diversity of the floodplain forest.
LaCrosse still seeking LSE airport director
LACROSSE, Wis. – The LaCrosse Aviation Board re-oened its search for a new airport diector. The position has been vacant sunce January when Ian Turner left to take charge of the Idaho Falls, Idaho, airport. Turner had been at LSE 4-1/2 years. The position is being advertised as $118,000 to $135,000. Tis a second round. The first search failed.
Civil suit filed in I-94 shooting of black driver
MINNEAPOLIS — The family of a suburban Spring Park Lake man who was shot fatally by a state trooper during a 2023 traffic stop filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. The suit asks damages from the State Patrol for actions of troopers Brett Seide, who made the stop, and Ryan Londregan, who fired the fatal shot. Both troopers are white. Killed was Ricky Cobb II, age 33, who was black. The lawsuit doesn’t specify how much is sought in civil damages. The core claim is that it was unreasonable for Londregan to shoot and that neither trooper had reason suspict that Cobb posed a threat. There seems to be agreement on most of these details on what happened that night:
> Seide pulled Cobb over on Interstate 94 last July because his car lights were out.
> Seide checked Cobb’s record and found a protection order violation in neighboring Ramsey County. A dispatcher asked the trooper to arrest Cobb.
> Londregan arrived to assist.
>The troopers told Cobb he he was under arrest and asked him to get out of hos car. Londregan reached inside and began opening a car door.
> Cobb shifted into drive and began to move slowly forward.
> Londregan reached for his gun, and Cobb braked to a stop.
> Londrgan pointed his gun at Cobb and yelled at him to get out. Cobb took his foot off the brake again.
> Londregan fired his handgun twice at Cobb, both times in the chest.
> The car rolled a quarter mile into concrete median
> Cobb died at the scene.
High-profile case
The Ricky Cobb case quickly became a new focal point in Minneapoliis race relations. Bad feelings were still unhealed from four yesrs earlier and the white police killing of George Floyd, a black man, which triggered demands, some violent, for racial jusyice. After the Ricky Cobb death this past May, Governor Tim Walz met with the Cobb family but didn’t act on their demand for the case to be taken away from the Hennepin County prosecutor and turned over to state Attorney General Keih Ellison. It was Ellison who successfully prosecuted the George Floyd case. The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, meanwhile, claims that Londregan and Siede acted lawfully and consistent with State Patrol use-of-force policies. Republicans have made the case a political issue. The governor, Tim Walz, and the attorney general, Keith Ellison. are Democrats. Republicans want Congress to investigate the Hennepin County decision to charge the trooperd. They allege “a deliberate attempt to use the Hennepin County attorney’s office to target police.”
Londregan. Age 27. Had received use-of-force instruction at the Minnesota State Patrol Training Academy in St. Cloud in 2021 nd 2022.
Cobb. Age 33. A maintenance mechanic with a roofing contractor.
Hy-Vee buys 22 Indiana grocery stores
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa-based grocery chain Hy-Vee, which has 280 stores in seven states, is marching next into Indiana. Hy-Vee has bought Strack & Van Til, which has 22 stores in northwest Indiana. Terms of the deal were not announced. In a bow to Strack & Van Til as an iconic regional brand name, Hy-Vee said the stores will retain their name and the cachet that goes with it. They will be a corporate subsidiary. Hy-Vee already uses a subsidiary model for many of its acquisitions. These include Midwest Heritage, Perishable Distributors, D&D Foods, Amber Specialty Pharmacy, Vivid Clear Rx, and Wall to Wall Wine and Spirits. In all, Hy-Vee has 550 outlets under various brand names. Among Hy-Vee brand grocery locations: Eau Claire, LaCrosse, Rochester and Winona.
Big name. In northwest Indiana grocery business.
Shop-owner heads downtown revival project
WINONA, Minn. – The owner of the downtown home decor shop Refinery, Jenna Lubinski, now has a second job. Lubinksi was named director of Winona Main Street Program. Her job: To continue the reinvention of the 72-block district that historically was the city’s main commercial and retail area. She has been interim director since 2022. She succeeds Ben Stand, who left for a community and economic development position Chatfield.
Lubinsky. Her shop Refinery at 203 East Third Street.
Emergency, fire crews make 52 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 41 emergency medical calls plus 11 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, April 16: 5 medical calls plus no fire call.
> Monday, April 15: 5 medical calls plus no fire calls.
> Sunday, April 14: 7 medical calls plus 3 fire call.
> Saturday, April 13: 9 medical calls plus 4 fire call.
> Friday, April 12: 4 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Thursday, April 11: 4 medical calls plus 2 fire call1.
> Wednesday, April 10: 7 medical calls plus no fire calls.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 48 calls
College scores
Tennis (men): UW-LaCrosse and Luther of Decorah, postponed
How bad Iowa tornadoes? Damage being assessed
Crushed farm sheds. Fierce winds, some clocked at 65 mph, caused damage in much of Iowa. Eastern counties were especially hard hit. Image: Winneshiek County Emergency Services
Multiple trucks blown over, blocking roads
POSTVILLE, Iowa – Tornadoes and storms brought hail and damaging winds across much of Iowa. At Postville, southeast of Decorah, farm buildings were leveled. Lots of communication was interrupted. The National Weather Service issued a call for citizen help to compile a count of touchdowns and assess damage. Wind at Cedar Rapids was recorded at 65 mph. South of Cedar Rapids a jack-knifed semi-rig blocked Highway 151. In separate incidents n Buchanan County two trucks overturned and blocked highways.
Touchdowns. Early compilation in blue circles. Image: National Weather Service
Woman seeking her kids ends up in jail
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona woman was arrested for a disturbance at a West End house, where she was demanding access to her two children with whom she has shared access. Police thought they had calmed the situation The report had come in about 1:30 p.m. On a second call about 4:40 p.m. they found Hawley Rae Krambeer, 33, in her car outside the address. Although her speech was slurred, police understood her to say she had been drinking Fireball, which is a cinnamon-blended whisky. This time the officers performed a blood-alcohol test. The breathalyzer showed 0.20% — 2-1/2 times the legal definiton of intoxication. She was taken into custody. This was in the 1200 residential block of West Fourth Street.
Krambeer. Charged with drunken driving and refusing a blood draw.
Wind topples oversize truck, blocks road
ROSE CREEK, Minn. — A wind gust blew a large truck over south of the Interstate 90 exit to Rose Creek. The driver of the Kenworth rig, Todd J. Wolter, 63, of Denver, Iowa, escaped serious injury. He was taken 14 miles to an Austin hospital for examination. The accident was about 2:50 p.m. on a straight stretch of Highway 56 near Rose Creek. Wreckage blocked both lanes. Traffic was detoured on back roads.
Prison for Galesville online teen sex prowler
MADISON, Wis. – A former Galesville man was sentenced to 18 years in prison for sextortion — a scheme in which he threatened to out young girls who sent him nude photos if they didn’t keep sending more. Seth W. Fagan, 33, operated the scheme through the Snapshot platform from his home. Federal Judge James Peterson issued the sentence, specifying that prison must be followed by a lifetime of supervision and monitoring. The investigation into Fagan began a year ago when a 16-year-old Onalaska girl told a school counselor that she was being threatened and harassed on Snapchat. The girl said she had been lured into accepting a friending request by someone identifying himself as a local teenager. She told police she sent about 10 nude photos after the threat. He investigation identified sordid details. In one instance, a 12-year-old girl was told to record videos in which Fagan directed her to masturbate and to cry while he watched. In all, Fagan collected hundreds of images of minors from across the country.
Fagan. Sentence is to federal prison.
LaCrosse charges
Besides the federal prosecution, Fagan has pleaded guilty in La Crosse Circuit Court to four felony counts. Localprosecutors have recommending that a sentence from the LaCrosse court run concurrent with the federal sentence.
Handgun reported stolen from parked car
WINONA, Minn. – A 9mm handgun was stolen from an unlocked vehicle in an apartmenthbouse parking lot in the 300 block of Market Street. The weapon was an SFX manufactured by theTurkish-based firearms company Kanik. It was registered, police said. The SFX model has variations that retail between $600 and $900.
Kanik SFX. Medium priced, widely available.
Fleet Farm: Thief twice drove off with loads
WINONA, Minn. – A do-it-yourself customer drove out of Fleet Farm’s outside loading yard with $1,000 worth of house siding and steel panels without paying, the store reported. The thefts were on two occasions with the same suspect. Police began a review of store surveillance tape.
Brutal, bloody attack inside couple’s place
Mankato Avenue. Police were called about 2:30 a.m. to an apartment in the recent-vintage complex down the street from the big-box Target store.
Victim survives blows with vodka bottle, baton
WINONA, Minn. – Police received a frantic call from a woman in a parking lot outside a Mankato Avenue apartment building that a brutal fight was going on inside. Police found a bloodied but coherent man in the apartment and took him down the street to the Winona hospital. Doctors in the emergency room patched him up. The man said he had been struck over the head five or six times with a vodka bottle in an argument and then clubbed with a taser device. The assailant, according to the victim, didn’t fire the taser but swung it at him like a baton. At the scene police arrested Matthew Zachary Manka, 29, of Winona. Manka was drunk, they said. He was booked for domestic assault.
The guest brings home a guest
The victim, who is 63, and his wife, 61, rent the apartment where the attack occurred. Manka, no relation, had been living with them about a year, the husband and wife told police. They gave this account: Without their permission or even advance word, and very drunk Manka brought a woman home. An argument ensued. As both women watched, Manka picked up a bottle of Kentucky-distilled distilled Sea Ice vodka and beat the husband repeatedly. Manka then picked up a baton of some sort and raised it as if to strike the husband. Whether the baton made contact was not clear to either woman amid the confusion and mayhem. In any event, Manta’s woman friend fled and called police.
Blood as evidence of violence
When police arrived, the apartment entry was splotched with blood. The husband was bleeding from wounds on the left side of hie face. Neither his wife nor Manka’s guest was injured. At the jailhouse Manka was booked and behind bars by 5:30.
Manka. Because of a previous domestic assault conviction, the booking charge was elevated to gross misdemeanor.
Online WSU nursing program rates high
WINONA, Minn. –The Winona State University post-licensure nursing degree program has been named the second strongest such program in Minnesota. The overall leader was Minnesota State-Mankato. The ratings came from a private organization, Degree Prospects, with data submitted mostly by the colleges. Criteria included affordability. These are the rankings by one criterion – timely degree completion:
> Minnesota State, Mankato, 77%.
> Winona State, 76.%.
> Bemidji State, 91%
The Winona State program was cited for a 95% job placement rate, largely through clinical affiliations with major providers. These include Allina, Gundersen, Mayo and Mercy One.
WSU spring concert includes Grieg tributes
WINONA, Minn. – The symphonic band director at Winona State, Cullan Lucas, will conduct Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto Number One at the university’s spring concert. At 2 p.m., Sunday, in the Dufresne Performing Arts Center. Free. The concert opens with a brass and percussion ensemble led by student director Max Davis, performing Grieg’s “Funeral March.” The Wind Ensemble, led by Janet Heukeshoven, will preent John Williams’ “A Prayer for Peace” from the 2005 Steven Spielberg film “Munich.” Among ither performances: Student Chase Larson with a trumpet solo of “Slavische Fantasie” by Carl Hohne.
Lucas. Conducts symphonic band.
Notable journalism
Pamela Eyden (Big River Magazine, March-April 2024): “Refuge Budget Struggles: A Million Dollars Down”
Rachel Mergen (Winona Daily News, April 11, 2024): “Madeline Kingsbury’s Disappearance to Be Featured Nationwide Saturday on CBS Show ‘48 Hours’”
Matthew Stolle (Rochester Post Bulletin, April 13, 2o24): “RCTC Aviation Program Hits Turbulence in Its First Years and Has Graduated Only Five Students”
College scores
Softball: UW-Oshkosh 6, UW-LaCrosse 5
Softball: UW-LaCrosse 11, Dubuque 1
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