For more than a decade, the mystery of who stole the treasured Wizard of Oz ruby red slippers from Judy Garland's childhood home in 2005 consumed the town of Grand Rapids and spawned speculation.
Although initially convicted of first-degree manslaughter Loyal Lundstrom's case was overturned 18 months later by the Minnesota Supreme Court. But that wasn't the end of the story.
In 'Unresolved: the Murder of Joel Lovelien,' Dakota Spotlight investigates the beating death of a man outside a bar amid Halloween festivities. Nobody has ever been found guilty of killing him.
15 years after Joel Lovelien was found slain, his death, and the murder trial and verdict that followed, continues to reverberate in many people's lives.
Charged with murder in Joel Lovelien's death, Travis Stay went on trial in Grand Forks in December 2008. 'Everyone had an opinion,' recalled a reporter who covered the trial. The verdict: not guilty.
A high school party in Bemidji resulted in the murder of a 15-year-old girl and the destruction of up to 15 acres of the Chippewa National Forest in the summer of 1976.
The Dakota Spotlight podcast reviews what evidence Grand Forks County submitted against Travis Stay when he was arrested for the murder of Joel Lovelien in 2007.
Joel Lovelien was a big man with a big personality. Not aggressive, but smart, with a dry, raunchy sense of humor. And don't forget his fondness for belting out the "SpongeBob Squarepants" theme song.
In this Dakota Spotlight episode, the podcast tracks the movements and actions of Travis Stay and others. What was going on with him and his friends that weekend night just before Halloween?
Cassandra Rhines was 19 when she went missing. She was last heard from in June 1985, when she called a friend to confirm that she would be attending her goddaughter's birthday party.
As police responded to the scene of the beating death of Lovelien in Grand Forks on Oct. 28, 2007, they quickly zeroed in on three costumed partiers that night: a clown, a cowboy and a hunter.
