The Beltrami County attorney's office will not file charges in the death of an underage Bemidji State University student who died of hypothermia as she walked home from a party intoxicated in December.
Bemidji Police Chief Mike Mastin said the county attorney's office told him last week there wasn't enough evidence to charge anyone in the death of Sandra Lommen.
Lommen, 20, of Bloomington, was on the way back to her dorm sometime after 2 a.m. Dec. 10 when she wandered onto a trail and fell into a creek. Lommen managed to pull herself out of the water but at some point fell in the woods and was discovered alive around 8:30 a.m. She was pronounced dead later at a hospital.
The police investigation focused on the party that Lommen was leaving. Mastin said police had to request information from the social media accounts of some of those at the party, prolonging the case.
"In this particular case there were multiple people at the party with multiple accounts," he said. "We wanted to make sure we present the best case possible so that if there is enough evidence so that if there is enough info it can be charged."
Anne Millerbernd is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune
Anne Millerbernd • 651-308-7126
