Police have arrested one suspect and are seeking another in connection with the fatal shootings of four people found in an abandoned SUV i...
Police have arrested one suspect and are seeking another in connection with the fatal shootings of four people found in an abandoned SUV in western Wisconsin, Dunn County sheriff's officials said Thursday.
Darren Lee McWright, 56, from St. Paul, Minnesota, who also uses the alias last name of Osborne, was arrested on a warrant from Dunn County and is being held in the Ramsey County Jail, according to Sheriff Kevin Bygd.
A warrant is out for the other suspect, Antoine Darnique Suggs, 38, who is believed to be in the Twin Cities area and is considered armed and dangerous, officials said.
The men are believed to be connected to the quadruple-homicide of Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, of Stillwater; her longtime friend, Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, of St. Paul; Sturm´s brother, Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26, of St. Paul; and Sturm´s boyfriend, Loyace Foreman III, 35, of St. Paul.
Darren Lee McWright, left, was arrested in connection to the fatal shooting of four friends in Wisconsin. Police are looking for Antoine Darnique Suggs, a possible accomplice
Victims Jasmine Sturm (left) and Matthew Pettus (right) were half-siblings, and worked together at Shamrocks Irish bar and grill in St. Paul
Victim Loyace Foreman III (left) was Sturm's boyfriend, while Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley (right) was a friend of Sturm
Family members say the four victims were together at a bar Saturday night in St. Paul. A farmer discovered their bodies Sunday in his Dunn County cornfield, about 60 miles to the east. All four had suffered gunshot wounds, authorities said.
Presley's father had insisted that the culprits must be someone his daughter and her friends knew because the the mother of a four-year-old and 11-year-old, 'doesn't know nobody in Wisconsin, let alone to be in Wisconsin.'
Police have not yet identified a connection between the victims and McWright and Shuggs, and no motive for the horrific murders has been shared.
Bygd has said investigators believe the victims "were randomly brought to" the area and that someone intentionally drove the SUV off the road and into the tall corn in the Town of Sheridan. He said the victims have no known connection to Dunn County.
Pettus had been working at Shamrocks bar and restaurant in St. Paul, where his sister had also been a longtime server, his brother, Zake Pettus said.
The FBI Minneapolis field office is assisting the sheriff´s office in the investigation, an FBI spokesman said.
Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd said investigators believe the bodies 'were randomly brought to' the Town of Sheridan and that someone intentionally drove the SUV into the tall corn
Bygd said investigators believe the victims 'were randomly brought to' the Town of Sheridan and that someone intentionally drove the SUV with the bodies into the tall corn.
He said that motive in the case remains a mystery, and that all possibilities are under investigation, including the involvement of personal acquaintances, organized crime, or a drug connection.
He said as yet there was no preliminary evidence of drugs as a motive, but that 'it very well could be, and that's going to be discovered through our investigation.'
Investigators believe the killer or killers brought a second vehicle to the dump site, and used it to escape. Police are seeking information about a possible second dark-colored SUV that may have been involved.
Investigators remain tight-lipped about many aspects of the case, and Bygd refused to answer many key questions, including ownership information for the SUV the bodies were found in, and the position of the bodies in the vehicle.
However, audio from a police scanner obtained by the station KSTP revealed that none of the victims were in the driver's seat.
Autopsies that were performed on Monday by Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office determined that all four victims died from gunshot wounds.
Flug-Presley's father, Damone Presley Sr., told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that the four victims were at a St. Paul bar on Saturday night and they got in someone's vehicle when they left.
'Why would this happen?' he said on Tuesday. '… It just doesn't make sense.'
Damone Presley, the dad of Nitosha Presley, told CBS Local the vehicle belonged to someone his daughter knew
Sturm and Pettus both worked at this Irish bar and restaurant in St Paul, a family member said
Deputies are seen walking through the field in search of clues as part of the homicide investigation on Tuesday
Damone told CBS Local he was 'numb' after learning of her death and urged anyone with information to 'speak up.'
'Somebody knows something. This doesn't just happen,' Damone said. 'This is not a freak accident. Please somebody say something.'
He added: 'I'm numb. I feel empty.
'She was a beautiful mother, granddaughter, just an inspiration and joy in my life. Good heart, a teddy bear as a person. Well-liked.'
Pettus' brother, Zach Pettus, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that he has 'an idea who did it,' referring to the homicides, but he declined to go into further detail.
'This is a freak thing that never should have happened,' Zach Pettus said. 'There is nothing that indicated this would have happened.'
Loyace Foreman III was the son of Loyace Foreman Jr, senior pastor at New Vision Faith Center in Saint Paul.
'He was stolen from us,' Loyace's mother, Jessica, wrote in a post. 'And we will find the thief. If it takes my very last breath. We will not rest. Loyace PulzeRazr Foreman III was my Prince.'
According to recent social media posts, the 35-year-old Foreman III had two children and was in a romantic relationship with Jessica Sturm.
He worked as a demolition contractor and enjoyed drawing in his free time.
'He was a doting uncle to his four nieces and nephews,' Jessica Foreman told Twin Cities. 'He was the protector of his three sisters. He was not perfect and we loved him unconditionally. He left an unfillable void.'
Presley, 30, Matthew Pettus, 26, Loyace Foreman III, 35, and Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, were found murdered inside the car in a field in Sheridan, rural Wisconsin, Sunday afternoon. Pictured the scene taped off
Sturm, who worked a second job as a paralegal at a law firm, and was raising her two sons, ages 11 and 5. The youngest boy had just celebrated his birthday last month.
Mourners online described Strum and Nitosha Flug-Presley as very close friends.
'There was never a time where i would see 1 without the other,' a mutual friend wrote. 'Y'all were literally inseparable and to think we lost y'all together don't even sit right.'
Flug-Presley leaves behind a young son and daughter.
'She was an outgoing person, a very good mother, exceptional daughter,' Presley's father said. 'She was very vibrant, she had a good heart, someone who would lift up your spirits.'
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