MN - Katherine Olson, 24, dies in Craigslist killing, Savage, 25 Oct 2007

[Squishified]

Ah, you may be right, crypto.

Hopefully, that is the case.

 

[believe09]

It may be a glitch of state law in that if they charged 1st degree at all they have to prove it at trial, so they go with 2nd degree and can upgrade as evidence allows. Anyone know MN law??


TN has an interesting system of letting the charges go in multiples, such as 1st degree or 2nd degree or.....
Makes for a long list of charges.

Crypto6

Thank you for the perspective...I hope so...

 

[fran]

are they SURE this was the first craigslist murder? because i thought i have heard of others...

I guess they don't count Donna Jou from Rancho Santa Margarita, California, who is still MISSING after meeting someone from Craig's List last summer. The person turned out to be a NON registered SEX OFFENDER!

Donna is still missing but the guy is in jail for failure to register. He said he'd talk about Donna if they'd work out a deal about his present situation, failure to register as a sex offender. The DA said NO deal.

Just google the name Donna Jou. She advertised on Craig's list to do tutoring during the summer. Somehow she got mixed up with this guy who was known to misrepresent himself.

fran

 

[CaliKid]

Still have no idea where Donna's body is, and while LE is positive John Burgess is responsible, they apparently don't have anything concrete to tie him to the crime. The county sheriff won't let Equusearch look for her either.

 

[cbreitel]

It may be a glitch of state law in that if they charged 1st degree at all they have to prove it at trial, so they go with 2nd degree and can upgrade as evidence allows. Anyone know MN law??


TN has an interesting system of letting the charges go in multiples, such as 1st degree or 2nd degree or.....
Makes for a long list of charges.

Crypto6

It's not really a glitch. An indictment for 1st degree murder under MN law requires a grand jury proceeding, which takes time. In order to quickly arrest and detain the suspect the prosecution elected to merely indict him for 2nd degree murder for now, which does not require a grand jury. They can and I'm quite certain will up the charges to 1st degree through a grand jury after further investigation.

I am intrigued by this sad case. I don't imagine it was hard for him to get her from the front door up into his bedroom. He could have easily lied and said the baby or his "wife" were up there. From everything I have learned about this delightful sweetheart of a girl, poor Katherine decided to trust him, probably against her instincts, just because she didn't want to appear rude to him. He then shot her once in the back. Her blood was found on the bedroom walls and on the mattress. Only time will tell the exact sequence of events, where she was standing when she was shot, and other issues.

A lot of people are asking: Why? I don't really care why. I just care that this evil is punished to the fullest extent of Minnesota law.

 

[Tonia]

Jury selection to begin in Mpls. woman's Craigslist murder
Jury selection starts Monday in the murder trial of the Savage man charged with killing a woman he met on the community message board website Craigslist.

Michael Anderson, now 21, is accused of murdering Katherine Olson, 24, of Minneapolis, in October of 2007.

Anderson is accused of killing Olson after she responded to his advertisement on the website for a nanny position.

Olson had told her roommate that the person who placed the ad "seemed kind of strange," according to prosecutors.

Olson went anyway, thinking she would be meeting a woman named Amy, or a couple. Instead, authorities say, she was lured to the home of her killer, Anderson, who shot her in the back before stuffing her in the trunk of her car.

Police found blood spatters in Anderson’s suburban home he shared with his parents, a gun in his bedroom and drag marks on the stairway.

Olson's body was found in her car, which was abandoned in a park about five blocks from Anderson's house. Her ankles were bound with red twine, according to the criminal complaint filed in Scott County. Her purse, her smashed cell phone, and bloody towels—one of which bore Anderson's name—were found in a nearby garbage can.

http://kstp.com/article/stories/s831346.shtml?cat=1

more at link

 

[Bobbisangel]

I justr want to know why..............................why do people kill for no reason

I know of three guys who had been out driving around and drinking. They decided that they wanted to know what it would feel like to kill someone. So they shot a young man who was in the navy. He was just driving down the road and was shot through the head! The murder was called a "thrill kill."
Sickening.


They arrested the guy who has been the suspect in the murder of Donna Jou. They think she overdosed. I guess some people at the party have talked to LE and that is the conclusion LE has come to. They still aren't clear on all of the details. Her body has never been found.

 

[Tonia]

Accused craigslist killer previously tried to lure babysitters, women

Michael John Anderson had tried to lure a babysitter to his home once before he was able to get Katherine Ann Olson to bite on his second ad for a nanny in October 2007, according to testimony today in the 20-year-old man's first-degree murder trial in Scott County.

In late October 2007, Anderson also posted more than a dozen listings looking for women.

"NSA, now, tonight, anytime," one read, apparently referencing a "no-strings attached" one-night stand.

Another was seeking 18- to 22-year-old women to model for an adult Web site.

In a third, Anderson wrote, "I'm just a man with a need and somewhere out there is a woman with a need. Is it you? Maybe. I'm looking for an NSA."
Earlier in the morning, Barbara Anderson, Michael Anderson's mother, finished her testimony from Tuesday. She said in February 2008 her son sent her and her husband two letters requesting they give $10,000 to the real shooter. They eventually turned the letters over to defense attorneys.
Steven Anderson, Michael Anderson's father, took the stand next. He told prosecutors he was on the road in Iowa as a truck driver on Oct. 25, the day Olson died. He also said even though he took his son hunting several times, his son never fired a rifle. When pressed by Assistant Scott County Attorney Michael Groh, Steven Anderson said he was not aware that his son ever fired a gun other than in a childhood gun-safety class.

"You know that's not true now, don't you?," Groh said.

"I do not know. I was not there. I have no reason to know," Steven Anderson said.

"You haven't asked him to this day?" Groh said.

Steven Anderson said no.

Fourteen witnesses have been called in the trial's first two and a half days.

http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_11992587?source=rss

 

[Bobbisangel]

Still have no idea where Donna's body is, and while LE is positive John Burgess is responsible, they apparently don't have anything concrete to tie him to the crime. The county sheriff won't let Equusearch look for her either.

Just reading through this thread and wondered if you are aware that LE are now saying that Donna died of an overdose? I guess some of the people at the party have started talking to LE. I don't know if I believe that she died of an overdose. They haven't found her body so how do they know except for what these people are saying. That means that that creep will get away with murder if it wasn't an overdose.

 

[Bobbisangel]

I can't understand why this guy is charged with 2nd degree murder instead of premeditated 1st degree. He placed an ad for a babysitter when he was the youngest person living in the household....he lies to her on the phone to get her to come to his home...she goes and he ends up shooting her probably after she was raped as there was blood on the bed and the bedroom walls.
If that wasn't premeditated I don't know what would be.

 

[Tonia]

Jury Finds Craigslist
Murderer Guilty

A jury has found 20-year-old Michael John Anderson guilty in the murder of 24-year-old Katherine Ann Olson.

Anderson was found guilty of first degree premeditated murder with intent.

The maximum sentencing is life in jail without parole.
In closing arguments, the prosecution said the evidence showed Anderson's acts were premeditated, and that he lured Olson to his home in Savage with the intent of killing her.

The defense's attorney tried in its closing to show the death could have been accidental, in hopes that jurors would choose a second-degree manslaughter conviction.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/Jury_Finds_Craigslist_Murderer_Guilty_march_31_2009

 

[capoly]

Life without parole for Craigslist killer

A judge sentenced Michael Anderson this morning to life in prison without parole for the murder of a Minneapolis woman he lured to his parents' house with a babysitting ad on Craigslist.

http://www.startribune.com/local/so...P4O:DW3ckUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiacyKUnciaec8O7EyUr

 

[Bobbisangel]

Life without parole for Craigslist killer

A judge sentenced Michael Anderson this morning to life in prison without parole for the murder of a Minneapolis woman he lured to his parents' house with a babysitting ad on Craigslist.

http://www.startribune.com/local/so...P4O:DW3ckUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiacyKUnciaec8O7EyUr

I'm so glad that he got LWOP. This guy if truly an evil person.