Fight with girlfriend, then three violent deaths

During a 5 p.m. newscast Monday about the just-discovered violent deaths of two women in their Mounds View home, Johnny Lee Ellis Jr. turned to his friend Anna Washington and said he had stabbed his girlfriend, "Angie," during a quarrel, Washington said Wednesday.

He also said her 75-year-old mother also lived in the house and he "couldn't leave a witness," she said.

"He asked me whether I had done anything I didn't mean to do, or if I had ever just snapped before," Washington said, recalling that Ellis had been edgy after showing up at her Minneapolis apartment last weekend.

Two hours later, even as police had found the body of a third woman at the grisly crime scene, Ellis was trying to kill himself, according to Minneapolis police called to the apartment.

Ellis, 38, was charged Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court with three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Jolyn Vigen, 75, and her daughters Angela Vigen, 40, and Jennifer Vigen, 35.

All three had been dead for a "significant amount of time" when they were found, according to the complaint.

Police found Jolyn and Jennifer's bodies Monday after a relative called police; Angela's body was found that night in a locked basement room. That same night, the suicidal Ellis was arrested in Minneapolis.

The violent deaths have rocked not only Mounds View and Thief River Falls, where the Vigens lived until 10 years ago, but also the special-needs organization where Angela worked as an office manager and which had served Jennifer, who had Down syndrome. Jolyn, a retired Head Start teacher called "Jo," was a fervent advocate for adults with disabilities. Photos taken weeks before they died show the sisters mugging at a Halloween party dressed as the Pink Ladies from the musical "Grease."

As the sun set Wednesday, a group of friends and co-workers from TSE Inc., Angela's employer, gathered for a candlelight vigil. Dressed in pink sweatshirts and jackets in remembrance of Jennifer, whose favorite color and nickname was "Pink," they shared stories about all three women and their involvement at TSE.

"Angela was a wonderful dancer," said Stuart West, who worked with TSE. "I danced with her at the Halloween dance. She was a nice, kind person."

A bloody scene

According to the charges, Mounds View police arrived at the home at 5108 Sunnyside Rd. and forced open a back door. There they found Jolyn and Jennifer, apparently dead "for a significant amount of time" according to the complaint, along with a trail of bloody footprints. Later, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators arrived and found Angela's body in a locked basement bedroom. A bloody hammer lay near her.

Autopsies revealed that Jennifer was stabbed 22 times in the face, neck and upper back, while Jolyn was stabbed 13 times in the face, neck and upper shoulders. Angela died from sharp-force injuries to her head and a blunt-force injury to her forehead. A 2-inch piece of knife blade had broken off and was lodged in her brain.

The bodies were in an early stage of decomposition. Authorities have not said when they believe the women died.

Just after 7 p.m. Monday, Minneapolis police were called to Washington's apartment at 3001 N. 3rd St. on a 911 hang-up call. When dispatchers called back, Ellis took the phone and said he wanted to turn himself in for a crime, stating "the ones in Mounds View."

When police arrived, they found Ellis holding a knife to his chest and threatening to kill himself and hurt the officers, police said. They used a Taser on him, but he began to stab himself in the chest. Officers wrestled the knife away and arrested him after he stabbed himself. He also tried to leap from a third-floor balcony.

Angela Vigen's shoes and credit card were found in the apartment. Her Chrysler was in the parking lot.

Despite his history of arrests for property damage and assault, Washington said Ellis was gentle and kind. So as she watched the news Monday with Ellis at her boyfriend's apartment, she was caught off-guard when Ellis handed her his identification. The address was the same as that on TV.

"I said, 'What did you do? Who did you kill?'" she said. "He said, 'I've been trying to talk to you all weekend.'"

Washington, who also spoke with police, said Ellis wanted to tell her more, but she didn't want to hear it, instead urging him to turn himself in.

She said she left before the police arrived. Her boyfriend, Anthony Williams, stayed behind, but she said he didn't know about Ellis' confession.

Washington said her card-playing buddy of more than eight years had never shown her a sign of anger. "John Jr. was not that type of person," she said. "We don't want people thinking that he's this monster, because he's not."

Jolyn Vigen moved with two of her daughters to Mounds View from Thief River Falls, Minn., 10 years ago after retiring as director of the Head Start program in Pennington County, said Betty Tangen, who worked with Jolyn for almost 20 years. Jolyn and her husband, who died about 13 years ago, had six children and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

"It's horrific. You just feel so sad that people that were so giving had to suffer so bad," Tangen said. "I can't think of anything that would have caused this. Why would someone have to do something so evil?"

Staff writer Lora Pabst contributed to this report. Abby Simons • 612-673-4921