2 men charged in cabin thefts, fires near Finlayson

Snow was still around when Brandon A. Lind and Christian A. Eichert drove off on the night of April 12, 2008, to burglarize cabins near Finlayson in Pine County, authorities say.

But early the next morning, after meeting with Lind's girlfriend, it became clear they'd done a lot more than force their way into a few cabins: "You've got to check out what we did," they allegedly said.

Ablaze along the shores of Big Pine Lake were eight cabins, a garage and a sportsman's club, damaged to the tune of nearly $1.5 million in all, according to complaints filed Tuesday charging Lind and Eichert with the arson spree.

Records show Eichert's cell phone was used to call the KSTP-TV tip line at 5:28 a.m. April 13, about 50 minutes after the first fire was reported.

On Tuesday, Pine County Sheriff Mark Mansavage said that Lind, 25, of Sandstone, had been a "person of interest" almost from the start, having been spotted by a sheriff's investigator driving through the area with his girlfriend yet again that afternoon.

But it wasn't until May 26 of this year, Mansavage said, or more than two years after the fires, that the case against Lind solidified. That's when the girlfriend, Kristina L. Langerud, 20, of Sandstone, "started to talk," the sheriff said.

Langerud, who along with Lind had been charged in Pine County with two earlier burglaries in 2007 and 2008, led authorities on a tour of residences and buildings that Lind had burglarized -- many of which are part of the 36-count complaint against him.

According to cell phone records, Lind placed calls to Eichert at 12:28 a.m. and 1:17 a.m. on April 13, 2008, which is "consistent with one being a lookout for the other," the charges say.

The two men were arrested Tuesday, said Mansavage. Additional individuals, he said, could be charged Wednesday.

At the time of the fires, authorities and cabin owners wondered why structures that had been burglarized had to be burned down, too: "You wonder how people can be so mean," said Cindy Mooney, whose father built his Big Pine Lake cabin in the early 1950s.

The Finlayson-Giese Sportsman's Club, a lodge built in the 1930s, was a $100,000 loss, Tuesday's complaints state.

The arsonist left footprints in the snow, but the sheriff said Tuesday he did not know how pivotal they were to the case.

Authorities say Eichert has denied any involvement in the burglaries or the fires.

Lind, who pleaded guilty to the burglary charges filed against him and Langerud, also denied being part of the Big Pine Lake fires. Asked about items recovered from his parents' house that allegedly had been stolen April 12-13, he said he "traded some weed" for it.

Mansavage said that investigators also provided information about Lind to authorities in Kanabec County. There, he said, Lind also faces a 20-count criminal complaint.