Rochester man charged with murder of woman found in field in June

ROCHESTER — A 41-year-old Rochester man is accused of providing the drugs that killed a woman whose body was found in a crop field east of the city in June.

Timothy James Loftus has been charged with third-degree murder and interfering with a dead body to conceal it for his alleged role in the death of 28-year-old Tia Arleth of Minneapolis.

Loftus has been in the Olmsted County jail since July 15 on separate drug-related charges. He will make his first appearance in court Friday in this case.

Arleth's body was found June 17 wrapped in a tarp in a field field near Viola Road and 70th Avenue NE. in Haverhill Township. A green dolly cart, hypodermic needle and a bottle containing a pill were found near the body, according to court records.

Her remains had severely decomposed, so an autopsy conducted the next day couldn't determine her cause of death. Court records state toxicology tests showed fentanyl was in Arleth's system.

Capt. James Schueller of the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office said multiple witnesses came forward after law enforcement publicly called for information when Arleth's body was found.

"This is encouraging to me as law enforcement, especially in society today," Schueller said in a news conference Thursday. "Some of the people we talked to said, 'You know, it just isn't right what happened to her. That should never happen to a human being.' "

"This is a very, very complex case," Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem said.

Court records state one witness told police he went to Loftus' house on June 9, where Loftus allegedly told him Arleth had overdosed and died on a mixture of heroin and fentanyl that Loftus provided. Loftus allegedly told the witness Arleth's body was in a trailer near the house.

Video from doorbell cameras and nearby school buses show a blue tarp in the trailer on June 9 similar to the one covering Arleth's body. Footage later in the day shows the trailer but without the blue tarp.

Investigators say the man who found Arleth's body told police he had mowed near the field on June 6. No tarp was in the field at that time.

Arleth's phone hasn't been recovered, but investigators say cellphone data shows it never left Loftus' home from the time Arleth arrived on May 29 to the time it appears to have lost power on May 31. The complaint states data from Loftus's cellphone shows the phone left his house on June 9 and went east to the location where Arleth's body was found. The data shows the phone was at the field for about 10 minutes.

The complaint states Loftus spoke with police several times. Loftus allegedly acknowledged Arleth had come to his house on May 29 but said she only stayed 20 minutes and was on her phone the entire time. He denied providing Arleth any drugs and said he didn't speak to her that much, but phone records show they messaged more than 100 times in May alone, according to the complaint.