A stare-down boiled over until a man fatally stabbed his father in the heart before torching their makeshift home in rural southern Minnesota, according to charges filed Tuesday.
Hardy R. Wills-Traxler, 25, was charged in Le Sueur County District Court with second-degree murder and first-degree arson in connection with the killing Sunday morning of 64-year-old Bruce Traxler in the residence they shared just outside of Le Center.
Wills-Traxler appeared in court Tuesday and remains jailed without bail. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
The father and son lived in a shed on the property that included living quarters.
Authorities were alerted to the fire by Jeffrey Traxler, Bruce's brother and the owner of Traxler's Hunting Preserve, just south of where the blaze occurred.
Jeff Traxler told a sheriff's deputy at the fire scene that his brother and nephew had not been getting along lately and believed "Hardy did something," the criminal complaint read.
According to the charges:
Within 90 minutes of the fire being reported to authorities and Traxler's body being found in the charred shed, a snowplow employee told police in Mankato that a man in a car commented that he killed his father.
