A college freshman who was found dead in a farm field in western Minnesota was left there by a man who panicked after the woman passed out while they injected methamphetamine together, according to a statement released Tuesday evening by Douglas County Attorney Chad Larson.
The man, Nickolas McArdell, 21, of Starbuck, Minn., told investigators he hid Laura Ann Schwendemann's body in a cornfield after she overdosed; she was found two weeks later by a farmer during the harvest.
He faces up to a year in prison for hiding the body, but won't be prosecuted for murder because the evidence doesn't support it, Larson said.
The Midwest medical examiner's office in Anoka on Tuesday released autopsy results that said it detected methamphetamine and THC, an active component in marijuana, in her body.
The autopsy, Larson added, found nothing other than the methamphetamine consumption that could have caused Schwendemann's death. It's only because the circumstances of her final moments are unknown that the official cause and manner of her death will be listed as undetermined, Larson wrote.
Schwendemann did not have any life-threatening diseases, nor had she sustained any traumatic or abusive injuries before death, he wrote.
Larson's statement included a heartfelt plea for drug dealers to consider the damage they're doing.
"How many lives must be taken?" the statement asked. "How many parents must bury their children?"
