Man questioned about ‘suspicious’ death of woman found in camper in Minnesota, court filings say

Newly released court documents contain details about the injuries suffered by a Twin Cities woman found dead under suspicious circumstances in a camper in southeastern Minnesota, and the questioning of a man she was with hours earlier.

The disclosures came in search warrant affidavits filed in Wabasha County by the Sheriff’s Office and publicly released Thursday in connection with the death of 66-year-old Barbara McBride-Law, of Lakeville, whose body was discovered by first responders on Aug. 30 at Mac’s Park Place in Mazeppa.

On Sept. 2, the Sheriff’s Office announced that McBride-Law’s death “has been ruled suspicious,” but law enforcement has since been silent about the case until the affidavits surfaced and cleared the way for searches for evidence in the camper, her vehicle, and the man’s cellphone and vehicle.

Sheriff Rodney Bartsh said Friday there have been no arrests, “and our investigators are still combing through the data as we speak.”

According to the affidavits:

An autopsy by a doctor with the Southern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office led to McBride-Law’s death being “deemed suspicious, [even though] the examiner could not give a cause of death at the time,” the filings read.

McBride-Law had significant bruising on her body, including her neck, a cut inside her mouth and petechiae in the eyes, red dots that are caused by ruptures sometimes associated with strangulation.

A sheriff’s detective interviewed the man by phone the day after McBride-Law’s body was found. The man said he arrived at the camper on Aug. 28 and spent the night with McBride-Law. He said they are friends and not romantically involved.

He said they drank heavily together on the night of Aug. 29 to the point of him not remembering going to bed or waking up the next morning.

The man said he woke driving his pickup truck at 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 30 on Interstate 90 near Rochester before traveling to his girlfriend’s home in Nebraska.

He said numerous times that he didn’t know what happened and didn’t know whether “he was the cause of [McBride-Law’s] death or not,” the filings continued.

The man had recent scratches on his hands and arms that he said came from changing parts in a vehicle. The Sheriff’s Office pointed out in the affidavits that such injuries “are typical in a struggle between two people.”