Suburban homicides

Last update: December 31, 2008 - 9:31 PM

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Among the metropolitan area's high-profile suburban homicides in 2008:

MARCH 13

Cody Casey, 17, is stabbed to death by Dakota Butler, 16, after Casey rode his bike to Butler's home armed with a rock in a sock. Casey prepared to confront Butler's older brother over a girl. When the two fought, Butler stabbed Casey four to six times. Butler pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the city of Rosemount's first-ever homicide.

JULY 7

Irene Kunze, 90, of Hopkins is found stabbed to death in her apartment. Corey Omar Posley-Wells, 27, was later charged with first-degree murder and robbery. Posley-Wells told police he was visiting a friend down the hall when he spotted her taking out the garbage and thought she looked like a "good robbery target."

AUG. 20

Rory Zitur, 47, of Buffalo, and Deloris Heald, 56, of Zimmerman, are shot to death by Heald's husband Gary, 59, who then shot himself. The three were alleged to be involved in an online swinger's club.

SEPT. 19

The body of Natasha Waalen, 28, was discovered on an Andover street near her crashed motorcycle. Authorities became suspicious, and later charged her live-in boyfriend, Ryan Boland, and his brother, Timothy Boland, with second-degree murder. Authorities allege Boland beat Waalen to death, then with the help of his brother, staged her body to appear as if she were involved in a crash.

OCT. 25

Jolyn Vigen, 75, and her daughters Angela Vigen, 40, and Jennifer Vigen, 35, are stabbed to death in their Mounds View home. A suicidal Johnny Lee Ellis, 38, is arrested two days later in Minneapolis. Ellis, who was Angela Vigen's live-in boyfriend, said he killed his girlfriend after an argument, then killed her mother and sister because he "couldn't leave a witness."

OCT. 30

Following a dispute over an inheritance, Edwin Hawes, 46, is allegedly shot by a crossbow, beaten with a bat and run over in the driveway of his Andover home before his remains are taken to Cottonwood County and burned. Two of his siblings, Andrew and Elizabeth Hawes, are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, as is Andrew Hawes' girlfriend, Kristina Dorniden. Authorities believe a dispute over money in the family business is the motive behind the killings.

NOV. 11

Ruth Anne Maddox, a popular reporter for the Shakopee Valley News, is strangled in her Prior Lake townhouse by her husband, Charles Maddox Jr., who hid her body in the garage. She had recently filed for divorce but had refused to move out and leave behind her beloved pets.

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