Close Call?
“I am very shaken right now and need to share what just happened to me.” That was the first sentence in a lengthy email sent to me over Father’s Day weekend.
The woman and her boyfried were walking their dog on the wooded paths around Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. On a hot summer evening, Lake Minnetonka is teeming with people walking, running, boating and drinking. It was late and the woman was near several hot party spots. “Just then,” she says, “a dark blue big van pulled up on the road and stopped. The man driving had the lights on in the van and he seemed to be typing or searching on a police like radio. My boyfriend and I were scared so we began to run up the path. A young man between the ages of 21-28 came walking past us. He was alone and looked a little afraid. We continued to walk down the path and about one minute later the boy came running from behind us. He stopped when he got to us. I asked him if he was okay. He said that he wasn’t okay and that he was afraid. He said it was a terrible night and that he couldn’t even begin to talk about it. He said that he was sorry because he was messed up. He didn’t seem messed up though to us.”
The young man walked away from the water and towards the street. The woman and her boyfriend searched for the young man, but couldn’t find him. They got in their car to drive home and spotted a police cruiser. She says that they flashed their lights at the car, but the officer didn’t pull over. Instead, the cruiser sped away from the busy area and into a more deserted neighborhood. The woman and her boyfriend turned away and called police. She says the dispatcher took her information.
The woman says, “I am scared. I know that the boy was running away from the van. It is like the van knew that he would be walking down the path and was waiting for him. We tried to alert a cop and he speed away from us. Whoever was in the van must have been in contact with people at the bar and in the area and I know it sounds crazy but a cop too… I am afraid for the safety of the boy. I wish I would have told him to come with me but he looked terrified and he could have been dangerous. Please get this information to the investigators or whoever you think would benefit from it.”
To verify the details, I asked the woman to get her police report or a record of her call to police. She says the police department does not have any record of report. The woman’s phone has a record of the call and the duration of it.
The woman is now on a mission to spread the story of SFK and is encouraging people to read about it and take precautions.
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Its great that people are keeping their eyes open around bodies of water where young men and people in general gather.
It sounds something spooked this young couple and it is a shame they didnt push questions to the young man to find out if the van was connected to his admission of fear, like theres was.
One thing that you have MISSED ENTIRELY DET MIKE and user jan1
THE YOUNG MAN TOLD THE COUPLE HE WAS NOT ALRIGHT AND HE WAS AFRAID.
I asked him if he was okay. He said that he wasn’t okay and that he was afraid.
He said it was a terrible night and that he couldn’t even begin to talk about it.
THE QUESTION IS WHY?
Sadly like i say they didnt get that information, but they too picked up something about the VAN BEFORE COMING ACROSS THE ADMITEDLY SCARED YOUNG MAN.
MY ADVICE IS TOO DET MIKE AND USER JAN1 IS
READ THINGS MORE CAREFULLY.
ANOTHER THING OF MASSIVE SIGNIFICANCE
IN REGARDS TO POLICE
To verify the details,
I asked the woman to get her police report or a record of her call to police. She says the police department does not have any record of report.
The woman’s phone has a record of the call and the duration of it.
HE WAS NOT JUST AFRAID
“he looked terrified “
He said that he was sorry because he was messed up.
THIS SUGGESTS TO ME THE YOUNG MAN WAS PROBABLY UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF SOME DRUG, THIS ALSO COULD HAVE ADDED TO HIS EXTREME FEAR
A DRUG THAT MADE HIM SO TERRIFIED HE WOULD HAVE GOT DONW ON HIS KNEES AND BEGGED FOR HELP FROM THE COUPLE OR ANYONE-
I THINK HE WAS NOT ON THIS PLANET SO TOO SPEAK AND HAD EXPERIENCED A TERRYFYING DRUG TRIP
THE QUESTION IS
was this related too the van, had he been drugged and followed, was the van waiting for him? was he being hunted purposly driven to more parania by an orchestrated hunting party bent on inducing as much terror in him as possible??
THIS IS VERY WORRYING IN LIGHT OF ALL THE ABOVE
AND IF THIS STORY IS ALL TRUE.
FOR WHY COULDNT THEY FIND HIM SO SOON AFTER HE WALKED ACROSS THE ROAD AWAY FROM THEM? HOW SOON WAS IT THEY TRIED TO FIND HIM IS THE QUESTION WAS IT ALMOST IMMEDIATLY OR DID THEY SIT AND TALK ABOUT THE INCIDENT TO EACHOTHER FIRST THEN TRY TO GO AFTER HIM THE WAY HE WENT…?
The young man walked away from the water and towards the street
The woman and her boyfriend searched for the young man,
“but couldn’t find him.”
I asked him if he was okay.
He said that he wasn’t okay and that he was afraid. He said it was a terrible night and that he couldn’t even begin to talk about it.
“He said it was a terrible night and that he couldn’t even begin to talk about it”
“he looked terrified “
why didnt he talk?
was that because of fear also
was he scared to tell?
i think the stroy suggests that
he had been running back and came upto the couple after first going passed them in the direction of the strange van he bounded back running at speed is the way the woman describes it
he at that time spoke and she says he LOOKED TERRIFIED.
HE SPOKE OF SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAPPNING TO HIM THAT NIGHT
HE HAD COME RUNNING BACK IN THEIR DIRECTION LOOKING TERRIFIED
AWAY FROM THE VAN
HE WAS TO SCARED TO TELL OR MAYBE IT WAS TOO COMPLICATED TO REALTE MAYBE BOTH.
KRISTI,
CAN YOU POST THE ORIGINAL EMAIL MINUS THE NAMES ETC ?
I’m confused. He walked past them and THEN ran back to them?
I think the important thing is that people in Minneapolis are keeping their eyes open near the bodies of water. They are looking to see if anything seems amiss.
In this incident, the woman was left wishing she had done more and acted more quickly. But, as she said, the young man may have been dangerous.
The lesson to be learned from this story is to be aware and be ready and willing to take action any time you see someone that may be in danger of abduction or other crime. On the other hand, do not get yourself in the middle of drug deals gone bad, cop chases, gang rivalries, etc.
I think there is intution, especially in women, that plays a huge part in them knowing things without having to have all the details placed in front of their eyes. If you “feel” like something is wrong, almost always, it is.
“Suspicion” is a “feeling.” The police can stop a person based on “reasonable suspicion” based on “articulable facts and inferences.” If the woman in this instance was a cop, she could have stopped any of her three “suspects” on reasonable suspicion: the cop car for fleeing when flagged, the van driver for being parked and somehow bothering a young man, and the young man for saying he was not okay and fleeing something and acting somewhat erratically.
Abductors DO sit in vans and wait for people to go by so they can grab them. At night, we don’t expect to see many delivery or worker vans.
Demetri Martin has a great skit about vans. He says when the cargo van was first invented, creeps must have loved it: “A room with no windows — and it moves! Awesome!”
I agree with Zorro’s Pal. Also I don’t think we have enough information here. I believe something was amiss that evening to get both the woman and her boyfriend so worked up but it’s difficult to say what was actually going on.
Here are some speculations seeing that we don’t have too many facts to work with as usual:
1.The boy was not running from the police. If he were, he wouldn’t have approached a couple for safety and told them he was afraid. The couple certainly couldn’t offer any protection for him from the police! He was being chased by someone or a group and thought the couple, or anyone around at the moment was helpful to ward them off.
2. Why didn’t the police car pull over when they flashed their lights at the police car? This is a common method used by the public to get help from the police.This couple even followed the cruiser all the way from a busy area to a deserted area which tells me the cop couldn’t have missed the repeated flashing lights of the couple, but wanted to get them off his tail.This is odd behavior. Unless the cop car had his lights and siren on and was responding to an emergency, he/she has a responsibility to pull over to a civilian in need of help. Instead the police sped away.
3. The boy didn’t appear messed up yet seemed terrified and couldn’t explain his horrible evening. He was terrified of someone/ or a group and it wasn’t the police (see #1). He was being chased and maybe he didn’t know by who or he may have told the couple and asked to use their phone.
4. Where IS the police report? If the woman called this in, the police are obligated to write a report. It is SOP to write down every call, even if someone says they stubbed their toe. So, why isn’t the report on file? This woman needs to call her cell phone carrier to get the proper documentation that she did make the call and go from there with the police. This is the part of the story I find most troubling aside from the police car not pulling over when lights were flashing from behind him/her.
I’m sure it all happened so fast but if we could have gotten a plate number or physical description of the blue van driver it would have been very helpful.
I’m wondering if there was something prior to seeing the blue van that gave this couple the creeps and then when they saw the blue van it caused them to panic.We’re they afraid because they were going to a path they felt wasn’t safe or were they discussing something scarey?
I’m also wondering if the person driving the blue van had silver/gray or salt and pepper hair and was in their mid forties (my suspect of course)? If they saw a police like radio they must have noticed the race, hair, and build of the driver.
Anyway, glad people are watching out for frightened males that are near water. It’s good to know there is an awareness out there.
3.
I also checked crime news at Lake Minnetonka from June 19th-present and nothing suspicious or related. They even list stolen bikes and such and there is nothing listed about anything happening related to a young man over Father’s Day weekend.
I lived next door to a woman that was assaulted once and it never showed up in a police report.She wanted me to pay to make a statement and have it notorized .The cop made an assumputiom about what occurred rather than be objective.The cop thought she was holding on to his property and he was trying to get it back.The cop probably assumed we were just sticking up for the neighbor and making false accusations and we did not even like her.I have seen how cops work at times.They have tried to size me up before more than once and were wrong.I was even accused of lying before more than once.i have met more than one stupid non objective cop in my life.I agree a report should have been done even if it was just speculation.It isn’t hard to figure out why it takes dumb luck for cops to catch a serial killer.Everything needs to be treated like it could be important and that is rarely the case.
It seems to me a data base could be created and when similar and circumstances could be compared.Say sometime later on there was an abduction or attempted abduction with a blue van somewhere else,comparisons could be made.That won’t be done because if there is no report in the first place.We have technology which should make it easier to do such a thing.It seems to me LE could be more efficient and less biased.
Now that I have thought more on the story: Why were they so afraid of this blue van with a man possibly using a Blackberry? And if it scared both of them why run down a remote path where he could follow them? Why not walk calmly away on the street?
The combination of events sounds like a creepy story and I get her fear.But at the same time the entire story has raised my suspicions of the Minnetonka Police. Squad won’t pull over and no record of her call.What is that about?
@Zorro’s Pal
What haunts you? Criminal profiling?
No, the fact that I still remember all that stuff from law school.
@Zorro’s Pal
oh, now I see what you mean. I wrote crim pro. I meant criminal procedure. It is stuff you are forced to take in law school. I liked it so much, I took extra classes in it. A great professor. To this day, I could tell you all about your rights under the 4th and 5th amendments, all about reasonable suspicion and probable cause and affidavits for warrants and legal searches and rights to an attorney under different situations.
I do keep up with the changes in it – it is so interesting. Did you see that Supreme Court decision the other day about the high school girl strip searched for ibuprofen?
@monique777
ooops — MOINQUE — THE REPLY JUST ABOVE IS TO YOU, NOT TO ME.
Sorry — obviously I am not answering myself.
And for the rest of us who had never heard of a Terry Stop:
http://www.expertlaw.com/library/criminal/police_stops.html
I remember all the useless information I learned. I will never need to know off hand the mechanism of action of every antibiotic but since this is what interested me the most I still remember it all. When I am really old I won’t remember my address, but I’ll be able to tell you what a beta lactase inhibitor is. LOL
@Zorro’s Pal
No, I hadn’t heard what the Supreme Court ruled. Is this the case where a female college student in Arizona was strip searched when she was 12 or 13 years old and they were looking for Ibuprofen in her underwear or something? I remember it being all over the news and caught a lot of attention but didn’t know the Supreme Court made it’s ruling. I sure hope they said her rights were violated!
One more thing. I wasn’t at a park where people hang out at night and do drugs and drink. I was on a bike path. The main road is busy with two bars and boaters. The street the path is on is not a busy road. There is nothing down that street but houses for miles. The speed limit is 20 MPH and it is not a high traffic area. To have a van drive up and make a sudden stop on the side of this street at 10:30 at night is very strange. To have people walking in that direction on the path at night is also very strange unless if they are coming from the bar and live in that direction. In the summers when I was a college student I went to Bayside and Maynard’s about 3 nights a week. My friends and I would walk down the path at night to sleep at my parents’ house. Not once did we ever see any other people on the bike path at night. The van was the only car on the road. The young man walked by us very quickly. There was an older couple walking behind him who was also walking fast. We were afraid of the van and didn’t warn them because we figured that between the three of them, they would be okay. The young man came running back to us about one minute later. He was running away from something that had scared him. He told me that he wasn’t okay. When he got to the area that was right about where the van was he became scared and ran back down the path towards us. The facts (not assumptions) are as follows;
We were walking on the path at night
A van came driving down the road towards us and made a sudden stop
The man in the van was on a radio looking device
We were afraid because there are not people on the road or path at night so we ran up the path
A young man followed by an older couple walked past us in the direction of the van
The young man came running from behind us about a minute later and stopped running when he reached us
He said that he was not okay
I guess that my only assumption is that he ran back towards us because something scared him. The only things down the path were a big, blue van and the couple walking behind him.
@Jay
Is there a chance the blue van was lost and after driving by many houses finally saw a bar (The Bayside) he pulled over to punch in his location in his cell phone? Then he could get home by usung his GPS in his cell phone.
If the blue van scared both you and your boyfriend and caused “you to run”, maybe it also scared this young man who was alone too.
I am not discounting your story and understand something was amiss but at the same time am not sure what to make of it either.I am also a bit confused by it and yes this could be that it was printed by someone other than yourself.
You say in your first paragraph, “And yes, I am familiar with what has happened to young men in bodies of water as I was close to one of the victims.”
Then in your following paragraph you say, “It was only after that I had spoken to her did I feel this was indeed SFK related as I didn’t know very many details of what had happened to to my friend or other men like him”.
I don’t mean to knit pick, but I am trying to get a clearer understanding, that is all. I do know the area. I am NOT saying you didn’t have a reason to be afraid nor can I say this is NOT related to SFK as I am hardly qualified to make that determination.
And thank you for sharing your story.
@Jay
Also, did the blue van driver have silvery/gray hair or salt and pepper hair? (brown with some gray?)
I didn’t think that you discounted my story and I have not been offended by you. The van was one of the big ones without many windows. The police like thing he was using was much larger than a cell phone but you can still carry it. If you look into a police car, there is a large computer like thing that they search and type on… also, when you get a package from a Fed Ex carrier they carry a large computer like thing that you sign your name on. It looked like that. I did see the man and he did have salt and pepper hair. His hair was parted on the side and he had a mustache. He stopped his car and turned on the lights in the car…that is how I saw him and I actually did try and see the plates but my boyfriend was pulling me forward and it was dark and I don’t have the best eyes. It is possible that the man was lost and maybe works for a company like Fed Ex and would have one of those computers. The van looked like a work vehicle because it had ladders on the top of it. We were walking from the neighborhoods back to the busy street. The van was driving from the busy street on the residential street.
To clarify for you; I was friends with one of the victims. We went to high school together. I went to college in AZ and was only home during summers so that is when we would see each other after college started. He disappeared in the fall when I was in AZ. He was found and had a funeral when I was away for spring term. I wasn’t able to come home for his funeral. I have had a few friends that have had suspicious deaths; this friend we are talking about, one was a horrible accident, and 2 that may have been drug related. I have never picked at any of their parents for details about their deaths… I would think it would be rude. I knew that my friend was taken and murdered but I am not one to listen to gossip; people have been saying that certain things happened to him for years. When I told his mom last weekend about what happened to me she told me of many details surrounding his death and many details about SFK that I never knew before.
@monique777
DARK BLUE VAN– While reading this story, it occurred to me that I do not recall ever seeing a dark blue van. If this story is true, then I wonder if the dark blue van belonged to a company or government entity.
Does anyone on here think they have ever seen a dark blue van? Are we talking about navy blue?
IMMUNITY-
That comment I made about the lawsuit – it has to do with governmental immunity as it applies in police acts – and here, the school was acting as if they were the police in conducting a search in an alleged crime. Immunity intersects with whether the act was legislative or administrative or rote. If the school had a policy to search the student, and the assistant principal did so (via the nurse), then their acts are administrative and they are within bounds in simply following procedure and therefore they are acting as agents of the school policy and so the school district can be sued. But if the school district policy was not to do such searches and it was done anyway by the assistant principal, then his decision to do so is legislative and the district cannot be sued. It would mean he was acting outside the bounds of his authority and therefore not acting as an agent of the school district. So immunity of the district would hold. But the assistant principal could still be sued for engaging in an act superseding his authority. But by that time, he will be fired and not have any income anyway.
@jay
Can you describe the van and the man in the van as well as you can?
VAN: What color blue? How old? Sliding door on side? Windows? Tint on windows?
How could you see man inside? How close did you get? What did he look like?
Any words on the van? Etc etc etc. Please describe as much as you can.
@jay
Can you describe the van and the man in the van as well as you can?
VAN: What color blue? How old? Sliding door on side? Windows? Tint on windows?
How could you see man inside? How close did you get? What did he look like?
Any words on the van? Etc etc etc. Please describe as much as you can.
@Jay
VAN — WIth ladders on top and out at 10:30 PM, this sounds like the van belongs to a utility — like the gas, phone, electric, or cable company. IS there such a company in the area that uses dark blue vans?
It is possible the young man on the path was intending to rob you or grab your purse.
MY THOUGHT: If we feel afraid, we are often sensing small “tells” that alert us to impending danger. We are supposed to pay attention to those. There are many subtle clues that a crime is about to occur. When I look at this story, though, to me it seems like the young man on the path was the one to be afraid of. But I was not there — and your reactions are what count. In any case, the whole situation was fishy and it made sense to watch yourself and be aware that a crime might be about to take place– either from the man in the van or the man on the path, or both.
@Zorro’s Pal
I could see the man because the inside lights of the van were turned on. The van was older and a navy blue with no markings. The van was dirty, older and didn’t look like one a professional company would be using. I saw the driver’s side of the van. There was one window in the back that had homemade looking curtains covering it. There wasn’t a door other than driver’s side door that I saw… I think that this type of van has doors that open in the back or on the passenger side. I was within 20 feet of the van and did see the driver. It was a man in between his 40’s to 60’s and he had graying brown hair parted to the side and a mustache. The young man wasn’t frightening. He was very preppy; wearing flip flops, shorts and a button up blue shirt. He had what looked like a towel with him. We were in swimwear, flip flops and I had a cover up on so no pockets, cell phones or purses… plus my dog is a teddy bear but looks very frightening so I don’t think people would mess with us with him. I don’t think a mugger would go out wearing what he had on and go after a couple with a large dog, no purse or pockets.
Wasn’t Chris Jenkins abducted in a white van or cargo van? It sounds like the sfk are defintley using vans for their abductions of these victims!
Why is Zorro’sPal saying there was no need for Jay to have nervous about the dark blue van? Why is he trying to portray it as van from a utility company? Why is ZP saying that Jay should have been nervous about the other young man on the path? ZP was not there, yet he seems to shoot down & attack that theory that perhaps hits a little too close to home for him. Is ZP really the SFK or a member of that gang???
Why is Zorro’sPal saying there was no need for Jay to have been nervous about the dark blue van? Why is he trying to portray it as van from a utility company? Why is ZP saying that Jay should have been nervous about the other young man on the path? ZP was not there, yet he seems to shoot down & attack that theory that perhaps hits a little too close to home for him. Is ZP really the SFK or a member of that gang???
Wouldn’t that be wild if someone on here was involved? Everyone’s a suspect.
Probably not?
Well…I would just like to “see” or “hear” to know what Chuck Loesch thinks about these.. I mean….I only trust him..(among Kristie & Bill??, & gannon & co) he was the first one on these cases… and he kind of saw the big picture…
Well Chuck…give us some insight and let us get back to the basics ….
(and by those question marks I only ment like I wasnt sure of his surname)
@jake
just move on..that whats he exactly wants to do – to stir things up…he´s a lawyer or a used to be or a wannabe/ he ´s fed up with his life/he hates people who dont “grammar” properbly” he ´s a sad fu*k so to speak…. so he comes over here and pick on us…would like to know how many languages he speaks???
thats a challenge, zorros pal….and by the way— take it over here…harrybauzonia@hotmail.com…..
I am so glad to hear about this blue van! I plan to go out walking tonight to see if I can spot it. I am going to bring my cell phone with the camera. If I see it, I am going to take a picture. I will let you know.
I am so glad to hear about this blue van! I plan to go out walking tonight to see if I can spot it. I am going to bring my cell phone with the camera. If I see it, I am going to take a picture. I will let you know.
What I mean is all of this is so sad, I can’t even imagine what the families are going though, I’m glad they have investigators watching this site! Great job Kristi I hope you nail these persons responsible for taking the lives of these awesome young men!
Everybody wish me luck! Off on my search for the blue van!
Have you no sense?
Have you no sense?
I’ve seen plenty of dark blue vans over the years, but I’ve never seen a utility company van with homemade curtains.
The ladders on the roof of the van could be a way to just make it appear more legit. It might not ever be used for any work or maintenance of any kind.
@harry
Harry, it sure sounds like Zorro’sPal has been trained as a lawyer from the different lingo he spits out & from the way he cleverly tears apart other people & their theories, but wouldn’t it be something if he is one of those priests who is also trained as a regular lawyer (criminal lawyer) & who’s job it is to protect the church at all costs? Who knows?
@Jay
This is to Jay. I found a blog online where the person posts what looks like a police log for Minneapolis crime. Back in April, there is a listing of a full size dark blue van in connection with a shooting incident by a Black male in his later 20s.
Here is the blog — you have to work at it to get the listings. MOnth by month is best viewing
http://mplscrimewatch.blogspot.com/2009/04/4th-precinct-weekly-highlights_22.html