A suspect was arrested in the strange shooting deaths of four friends found dead in a Wisconsin cornfield, authorities said.
A suspect has been arrested in connection with the shooting deaths of four friends whose bodies were found in a black SUV abandoned in a Wisconsin cornfield, authorities said. A second suspect is at large and is considered armed and dangerous, according to Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd.
Darren Lee McWright, 56, who also uses the last name Osborne, was arrested Thursday in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is being held in the Ramsey County Jail, Bygd said. He has been charged with four felony counts of hiding a corpse, the sheriff said. An arrest warrant has been issued for Antoine Darnique Suggs, 38, who is believed to be on the run in the Twin Cities area, Bygd said.
The sheriff warned citizens to not approach Suggs, but to instead call authorities.
The strange case has stumped investigators, who say they have not established a motive for the killings.
"That one is a mystery," the sheriff said earlier this week.
The victims were identified as: Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30; Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26; and Loyace Foreman III, all from St. Paul. Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, was from Stillwater, Minnesota. An autopsy determined all four died from gunshot wounds, Bygd said.
The four had been out Saturday night in St. Paul and visited at least one bar, authorities said. The victims were linked to the suspects by surveillance camera footage and witnesses, according to court documents, The Associated Press reported.
A complaint filed Thursday against McWright said witnesses told police they saw Suggs late Saturday at the White Squirrel Bar in St. Paul with Flug-Presley, The AP reported. One witness said they were together at the bar, and another said Flug-Presley bought a shot of tequila and handed it to Suggs, the wire service said.
A farmer found the bodies about 2 p.m. Sunday, inside the SUV, which had been driven about 50 feet into a cornfield. The Dunn County farm in Wisconsin is about 70 miles east of the Twin Cities area. Authorities said a second vehicle may have picked up the killer or killers.
All four were shot once in the head, according to the complaint. Flug-Presley was found in the front passenger seat of the 2008 Mercedes Benz GL and the other three victims were in the backseat, The AP reported, citing the complaint.
The Mercedes was captured on convenience store surveillance video pulling up to a gas pump about noon Sunday in Sheridan, the complaint said. A minute later, a black Nissan Rogue is seen stopping at another pump. Investigators said they traced the Nissan Rogue to the mother of Darren Suggs, who told authorities that his brother, Antoine Suggs, uses the vehicle when he’s in town, according to the complaint.
Darren Suggs told authorities that McWright is his biological father and identified him from a still photo as being at the convenience store, the complaint said, according to the wire service.
Flug-Presley's father, Damone Presley, told KARE-TV Thursday that McWright "is well known by our family."
Presley said he was shocked to learn of the arrest. "It blew me away to see this individual, and who it was and the relationship that we have had that he was ... involved in what happened," said Presley. Antoine Suggs was also known to the family, and had attended a recent birthday for one of his daughter's two children.
"How dare you, how dare you?" said an emotional Presley. "But justice will be served."
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