No charges filed in mummified body case; tissues to be tested

Last update: July 14, 2009 - 10:04 PM

A St. Anthony man is out of the Hennepin County jail a few days after a partly mummified body was found in his house.

John Allen Knutson, 61, was released Monday night. He had been booked on probable cause of murder Friday after a woman's body was found in his garbage-filled house in the 3100 block of Bell Avenue NE. Neighbors said a woman who lived with Knutson hadn't been seen in weeks.

St. Anthony Police Chief John Ohl said an autopsy had been performed on the body, but its condition made it hard to determine anything. Without any findings, no charges were filed, he said.

Authorities are still investigating. Ohl said the next step is a deep tissue analysis of the body, which will take two or three weeks.

Authorities were having a difficult time finding any relatives of the woman, Ohl said, so an official identification was not available for release.

Knutson, who St. Anthony police have said suffers from mental illness, is well-known to police after a number of less serious brushes with the law through the years.

VINCE TUSS

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