Kira Trevino search continues in creek connected to Keller Lake

Ramsey County sheriff's water patrol deputies found a jacket in the snowy and icy bank of a creek connected to Keller Lake, where the monthlong search for St. Paul resident Kira Trevino has turned up crucial evidence in recent days.

Four water patrol deputies in full body gear prodded the creek bottom with long sticks and poked under ice shelves, breaking away ice and snow when possible. The unit began its search about 1:30 p.m. and ended it about 3 p.m.

Sgt. Paul Paulos, a police spokesman, said about a half-dozen items of interest were recovered from Keller Regional Park this weekend from both the ground and water, much of it discovered by citizens mobilized on social media. Paulos cautioned that there could be lots of unrelated debris at the park, which runs along two busy roads in Maplewood.

"We look at each found item separately to see whether they are related to the Trevino case," Paulos said.

Deputies found the jacket about a third of the way down the creek, which connects Keller Lake to Round Lake, both located just north of Lake Phalen. Authorities have not said whether any of the items recovered this weekend or Monday are related to the case.

Trevino, 30, was last seen alive on Feb. 21 leaving the Mall of America with her husband, Jeffery Trevino, 39. Her husband was arrested a few days later and charged with two counts of second-degree murder in her disappearance based on physical evidence found in the couple's home, surveillance footage and information from Kira Trevino's family that she was planning to leave him.

Authorities believe Kira Trevino is dead based on "copious" amounts of blood found in the couple's rented house in the 500 block of E. Iowa Avenue. The house is about two miles from Keller Lake, where last week searchers found a plastic bag with a bloody pillow, pillowcase, shirt, sports bra and sponge. Blood on the pillow matched Kira Trevino's DNA. Cadaver dogs were brought out and signaled to a hole in the lake.

The sheriff's dive team searched the lake last week, making a 40-foot radius around where the dogs detected a scent, but did not find anything.

Jeffery Trevino reported his wife missing Feb. 24, two days after she failed to report to work at a clothing retailer, Delia's, at the Mall of America. Police received a tip that someone driving by Keller Lake in the early morning hours of Feb. 22 saw two men on the lake struggling with an object the size of a person wrapped in something.

Chao Xiong • 612-270-4708