A Minnesota man accused of murder allegedly wrote a letter to his girlfriend saying they would be leaving “for a long time due to their mistake” and they would not let police capture them, court documents say.
Police found the handwritten note in Alexis Marion Elling’s apartment when they arrested her on Thursday, two days after they cuffed her boyfriend, Bradley Allen Weyaus, following a tense police operation that was detailed in a package of court documents.
The couple was taken into custody two days after a Mille Lacs County Public Works Department crew discovered human remains in an abandoned storage tote along the shores of Mille Lacs Lake.
Inside the plastic tote, which was bound with bungee cords and industrial tape, the crew found 25-year-old Rodney Pendegayosh Jr.’s remains, including a severed foot. The crew then called police.
Several pellets found in buckshot shotgun shells were found in his throat and upper chest, according to the sheriff’s office in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota.
Responding officers spotted a white Saturn driving by the abandoned storage tote, which matched the description of Weyaus’ car, the court documents say.
“As the investigator’s squad began to overtake the vehicle, instead of pulling over due to the investigator’s emergency lights, the white Saturn accelerated away at a high rate of speed,” according to the records.
The officer requested backup and relayed the license plate before he broke off the high-speed pursuit as Weyaus allegedly approached a highway toward a rural section of the county.
Backup was not far behind, and police resumed the pursuit, which led them to a rural property surrounded by several buildings.
Weyaus allegedly abandoned the car, grabbed duffel bags and ran into one of the buildings to hide, according to the court documents.
Police overtook the building, found Weyaus and placed him in handcuffs.
They also recovered two duffel bags with several items inside, including a hammer, hacksaw and industrial tape, which police said matched the tape on the storage tote, the court documents say.
Inside the car, police said they found a spent shotgun shell.
The investigation led officers to Weyaus’ girlfriend’s apartment on Main Street in Isle, Minnesota, which is about 35 miles north of where Weyaus was arrested and in the area that the tote was found.
“A search of the residence revealed that there were several areas of carpet removed from the floor of the residence,” the court records say. “Inside the residence, law enforcement located a handwritten note to Female‐1.
“The author of the note indicated remorse, sorrow for causing Female‐1 trouble and stated that the author would be leaving for a long time due to their mistake. The author further stated that they would not allow themselves to be captured by law enforcement.”
“Female-1” was later identified as Elling in a separate court filing, and she allegedly admitted to police that she took part in covering up Pendegayosh’s death.
“Elling indicated that Weyaus had told her that he had killed (Pendegayosh),” the court documents say.
“She indicated that the body was in the storage container, but she did not assist in placing the body there. She stated that the storage container was already loaded and sealed when she was made aware of it.
“Elling admitted that she had helped remove the container from the residence on Main Street knowing that (Pendegayosh’s) body was inside. She indicated that it was placed in Female‐2’s vehicle and then driven to Female‐ 2’s residence in Wahkon where it was unloaded,” the court documents allege.
She also allegedly told police that she stashed the “long gun” in the car of “Female-2,” drove it to Wahkon, Minnesota, where she allegedly unloaded it and sold it to an unnamed man – listed in the filings as “Male 1” – for drugs, the court documents say.
Police searched the dumpsters near Elling’s Main Street home and allegedly found trash bags with “several” pieces of carpet with blood stains, Pendegayosh’s ID that was cut in two pieces, a hardware store receipt for a knife, tool sharpener, rubber gloves, black mask and industrial tape, the court documents allege.
Investigators said they also found empty boxes for 12-gauge shotgun shells in the trash and press-on fingernails that matched a press-on fingernail in the tote box.
“Female-2,” “Female-3” and “Male 1” had not been named or arrested as of Tuesday morning. The only description provided in the documents listed “Female 2” as Elling’s roommate.
Mille Lacs County Sheriff Kyle Burton said in an email that more information would be released in a press conference this week, and the medical examiner’s full report with toxicology “will take some additional time to complete.”
Police have not indicated what connection Weyaus and Elling allegedly had to the victim or what the motive for the killing was.
Weyaus was charged with second-degree murder, fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle, concealing a body and concealing evidence.
Elling was charged with two counts of being an accomplice after the fact.
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