I worked at JennieO in Barron many decades ago and it was called Jerome's then (before it was sold). I can tell you that drugs were rampant even then and not overly hidden. One could go into the restroom on break and the majority of people were sharing them or selling them talking about them and did not care if all heard or saw. This was an evening shift. While there were no large numbers of different ethnicities in that day, there was an extremely high turnover and it was one of those places, imho, that would hire without much vetting of employees simply because of that. Much of the work is in cold, wet conditions and it is hard work. Employees also came from long distances or neighboring counties to work. As I said in an earlier post, Rice Lake is the biggest town around for an hour at least in most directions and two hours in some. Jerome's was and probably still is one of the biggest employers in quite a huge radius.
Since I worked there back when, I know people who still do and people who, like the Closses, that have worked there most of their lives. Turnover is high but day shift and other positions once one works their way up holds employees better. Office, cafeteria, maintenance, etc. probably retains employees better. Line work, however, probably far less so. Without going into too much more detail, one of my main theories is this was work or work/drug related. I am not saying the victims did drugs but it doesn't mean they did not see it go on or pick up on something like that or another crime.
The PT works there too as all know so that kind of gives you an idea of the fact that there are people with records for varieties of crimes who are hired and do work there. There are also many in and out with regard to trucks, deliveries, etc. Some employees also work between the plant in Barron and the ones in MN, or at least it used to be that way and I imagine it still is.
One thing that also bothers me to this day is the body found in Willmar, MN, since
identified. Later I found on the very same day a red or orange Challenger was stopped in Willmar (this was in a MN paper I saw later). While the car was stopped, it was let go. <modsnip - discussing other forums, sleuthing non-POI>
I apologize for the length of this post and promise they will not all be so long
