HIBBING â Authorities have charged a Hibbing man in the murder of 71-year-old Courtney Fenske in 2017, officials said.
The St. Louis County Sheriffâs Office on Tuesday announced that deputies initially arrested Blake Andrew Stangel, 51, on May 24 in the city on unrelated charges. Law enforcement identified him as a former renter of Fenske and obtained a sample of his DNA. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said his DNA matched a sample found at the dated crime scene just southeast of Hibbing.
The Sheriffâs Office again arrested Stangel on May 28. This time he was arraigned and charged with second-degree manslaughter. He is currently being held on a $100,000 bail at the county jail in Duluth.
A 51-year-old man died after falling into Trout Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area on Monday, officials said.
Passengers in the boat dialed 911 at about 2:20 p.m. that afternoon on Memorial Day to report that the man fell into the water on the North arm of the lake, according to a news release from the St. Louis County Sheriffâs Office on Tuesday. Sheriffâs deputies said that âdue to poor cell phone reception, it took a period of time to ascertain from the reporting partyâ that the man was underwater for 2-3 minutes.
The man, who has not yet been identified, was reportedly not wearing a personal flotation device when he was sitting in a âpedestal type chairâ in the bow of a boat and fishing in the lake, according to a news release from the St. Louis County Sheriffâs Office on Tuesday. The other boat passengers told authorities they âsuddenly heard a splashâ and turned to see the man in the water.
Authorities are searching for three individuals in connection with the murder of a 16-year-old male on the Fond du Lac Reservation in St. Louis County, officials said.