News Briefs: Snowmobiler missing two days found alive

Editor's note: The following is a collection of news briefs from Forum Communication Company newspapers in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

MINNESOTA

Mahnomen man dies from exposure

MAHNOMEN, Minn. -- A Mahnomen man died, apparently from exposure to frigid weather, and his body was found Saturday morning in the storage area of a Mahnomen business.

According to the Mahnomen County Sheriff’s Office, a call came in at 10:44 a.m. Saturday that a resident of the city found a man lying on the ground in a storage building at the resident’s place of business. The resident said he wasn’t sure whether the man was breathing.

Taken by ambulance to the local hospital, Gary Goodwin, 61, was pronounced dead. An autopsy’s preliminary finding was death caused by hypothermia with complications of possible drug use. More toxicology test results are pending. There were no signs of foul play, according to the sheriff’s office.

The temperature in the region rose Friday from about 8 degrees in the morning to near 30 degrees by midnight, and began falling Saturday to below zero by Saturday night, according to the National Weather Service.

WISCONSIN

Snowmobiler missing two days found alive

SUPERIOR, Wis. -- After being missing for two days and two nights in bitter cold, a snowmobiler from Superior has been found alive and taken to Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, Minn., for treatment, according to the Superior Fire Department.

A plow operator on County Road W in Douglas County in Northwestern Wisconsin found Craig W. Friebe, 52, on foot on the ice of the Nemadji River at about 8:50 a.m. and called 911 for assistance. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Department responded, and Friebe was transported for treatment of apparent frostbite and signs of hypothermia.

Friebe’s sled apparently ran out of gas far up the river, and he had to walk out of the area where he had been snowmobiling, according to the Superior Fire Department. Battalion Chief Vern Johnson said Friebe had a fire the first night but not Sunday night, when the temperature in the area reached 15 to 20 degrees below zero and wind chills hit 40 below.

Friebe had not been seen since Saturday morning, when he went snowmobiling in the Superior area.

NORTH DAKOTA

Fargo South to host state debate tourney

FARGO – The North Dakota High School Activities Association State Debate Tournament is set for Feb. 1-2 at Fargo South High School.

Events start at 3:45 p.m. Feb. 1, and students will debate through three rounds the first day. The tournament continues at 8:15 a.m. Feb. 2, with final rounds scheduled for 3:15 p.m. with awards following in the commons area.

The event is free and open to the public.

Fire truck catches fire

FARGO – One of the Fargo Fire Department’s first-line fire engines caught fire while it was parked Friday afternoon in the Public Safety Building in North Fargo.

Assistant Fire Chief Leroy Skarloken said the pumper truck had been parked there for about three hours while firefighters were in a class. The fire started in the engine compartment of the 2006-model fire truck.

“There was quite a few fire trucks in the station,” said Skarloken. “Guys were really scrambling to put it out.”

Skarloken says he thinks the cause of the fire was electrical in nature, but that it’s still under investigation. He said the department plans to have the truck repaired. Fire trucks with the Fargo Fire Department typically are replaced every 20 years.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Arrest made in alleged campus rape

MITCHELL, S.D. -- Mitchell police arrested a 23-year-old man Monday for rape of a person incapable of giving consent.

Kristopher Wilson, of Lawrence, Kan., allegedly had sex with an adult female who was highly intoxicated and unconscious at the time.

Wilson is a student at Dakota Wesleyan University, where the incident allegedly occurred during the early morning hours Sunday.

DWU Vice President of University Relations Lori Essig confirmed that Wilson is a student at the university and was living on campus at the time of the incident.

“We haven’t dealt with anything like this in our recent history,” Essig said. “I can assure you that the campus life disciplinary team will be dealing with this in a timely manner.”

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