KELLOGG, Minn. — A Wabasha woman died at the Wabasha hospital of wounds, perhaps from a gun fired at close range, at a Mississippi River boat landing. Deputies said that Melissa Hunt, age 37, despite her wounds, had driven toward Kellogg and pulled into a driveway. The homeowner called for help. This was about 4:45 p.m. An ambulance took Hunt seven miles to the Wabasha hospital, where she died. Deputies said her lower jaw and several teeth were missing. Even so, deputies said Hunt had been able to communicate in the driveway that “Craig” had hit her with a stick but that she was unable to complete his last name. At hospital before she died, deputies said, she identified her assailant as Craig Hameister and that he lived near Chatfield and drove a white pickup truck. She died about 6:20. At the boat landing, seven miles from Kellogg at West Newton, deputies canvassed he area but were unable to locate any stick that looked as if it had been used as the weapon. Nor could deputies find blood or evidence of a struggle. The landing is remote at the upper end of a boating, fishing and recreational area off Weaver Bottoms. At the landing ii the late afternoon, however, there were no witnesses. Based on Hunt’s dying words, the Wabsha County sheriff’s office issued an alert for Craig Alan Hameister, 44, beieved from Rochester. It was thought to br a former boyfriend.
