Post by Scumhunter on Feb 18, 2018 5:53:00 GMT -5
From The West Central Tribune website:
WILLMAR — It was 35 years ago on February 18 that Ludvig Olson drove to his brother's home across from the Crow River Lutheran Church south of Belgrade to deliver some bad news about the death of a sister-in-law.
The news waiting for him there was far worse. He discovered that his brother had been brutally murdered.
The 1983 murder of Joseph Scriver Olson, 75, remains an unsolved homicide, but also an open case. Kandiyohi County Sheriff Dan Hartog and the sheriff's detective assigned to the case, Kent Bauman, continues to this day to follow up on every new tip or piece of evidence that comes up.
Tips and calls still do occasionally come, and both law officers emphasize that this remains very much an open investigation. After all of these years, the knowledge of what happened may weigh heavy enough on someone to come forward, they said. It could be either the perpetrator or perpetrators or an acquaintance with inside information, but they remain convinced someone can provide the missing information to solve this homicide.
Olson was a retired farmer who had never married. He sold seed corn and monuments, and according to newspaper accounts of the time, was well liked and known throughout the Belgrade community.
He was active in the Crow River Lutheran Church. He had reportedly donated $8,000 to the church one month before his murder, according to an April 1983 account in the West Central Tribune. The same article noted that friends and neighbors who knew Olson questioned why he would be targeted by a criminal. He never carried much in the way of money, always writing checks for his purchases.
He lived by himself in a weathered home on a cluttered farm site. He did not have a telephone.
Scriver Olson's absence from choir practice on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 1983, was the first sign that something was amiss. He also had failed to show up that day for the senior noon meal in town, even though he had signed up for it.
Authorities later disclosed that he had picked up his mail on Tuesday, but not Wednesday, leading them to believe his death had likely occurred sometime after he was last seen in Belgrade at 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 15.
Later, authorities would reveal that he had been brutally beaten and stabbed, possibly a couple of days before his brother discovered the body. The possibility that his death was the result of a burglary gone bad was among the early theories in the case. It remains one of the theories, said detective Bauman, adding that there remain a number of theories and lots of speculation on what led to the murder.
Shortly after the murder, authorities received an anonymous letter from someone stating they had seen a brown pickup truck in the victim's driveway on Feb. 16.
Sheriff Hartog said law officers continue to keep private many of the details of the murder for investigatory reasons. It can help investigators sort fact from fiction: Only someone with actual knowledge of the murder would have information not in the public domain, they explained.
Investigators have interviewed many people and followed up countless leads through the years in hopes of putting the pieces together. Among those questioned extensively was Delbert Huber, a former neighbor of Scriver Olson. Huber died in prison in 2014, at age 83, while serving time for the fatal shooting of Timothy Larson on a farm near Belgrade in 2011.
Through the years, a number of officers with both the Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension have investigated the homicide. At one point, evidence was turned over to the FBI for analysis as well.
Sheriff Hartog said new officers have deliberately been brought into the case over the years to provide a fresh set of eyes, just in case it helps catch something others may have missed. This is not a file that collects dust on a shelf, he and Bauman emphasized.
And, of course, the evidence seized at the site of Scriver Olson's murder remains in the possession of law enforcement. There is always the possibility that some new advancement in technology could help pull new information from the evidence and provide some of the answers so long sought.
As for now, however, the two law officers believe finding the answer to who killed Scriver Olson will depend very much on someone coming forward with one or more pieces of the information that is missing. Tips are welcome by calling the sheriff's office 320-214-6700.
www.wctrib.com/news/crime-and-courts/4405018-35-years-later-murder-scriver-olson-remains-unsolved
Thoughts?
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