1. Former Viking Barry Bennett, wife found dead
The Todd County Sheriff's Office and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were still searching Thursday night, Aug. 22, for a 22-year-old man wanted in connection with the "suspicious" death of a former Minnesota Vikings and Concordia College defensive lineman and his wife at their rural Long Prairie residence.
The sheriff's office received a call about 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday from a friend of Barry Bennett. He said Bennett, a retired gym teacher and coach at the Long Prairie school, hadn't returned his texts or call since Tuesday.
The sheriff's department said they found Bennett and his wife who died under "suspicious circumstances" near the town of 3,500 about 30 miles east of Alexandria.
In the course of the investigation, authorities identified the 22-year-old suspect as Dylan John Bennett, the couple's adopted son who was living at the home at the time.
More from The Forum's Barry Amundson
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2. Life sentence overturned
The North Dakota Supreme Court issued a ruling Thursday, Aug. 22, that throws out the life sentence of a Fargo man who was convicted for his role in the kidnapping of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind’s baby.
William Hoehn, 34, was sentenced in October to life in prison with the chance of parole after pleading guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to commit kidnapping and a misdemeanor charge of lying to police in connection with the death of LaFontaine-Greywind in August 2017.
A jury found Hoehn not guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in LaFontaine-Greywind’s death. The 22-year-old was pregnant when she was killed and her baby was cut from her womb. The baby, Haisley Jo, survived the ordeal.
Hoehn’s former girlfriend, Brooke Crews, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
3. Wrongful death lawsuit filed against Moorhead, DNR
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The family of a Moorhead girl who drowned in a pool during a youth program at a state park has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Moorhead, the Moorhead Police Department and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, alleging negligence and liability in the child’s death.
Grace Bettie, 9, was one of nearly 180 children who were at the Buffalo River State Park near Glyndon, Minn., as part of the Moorhead police Summer Youth Program when she drowned in a crowded swimming pool on June 27, 2018.
The lawsuit filed in Clay County District Court on Wednesday, Aug. 21, seeks more than $50,000 in damages.
Bettie’s family is alleging negligence and willful and wanton liability on the part of the city of Moorhead, Moorhead police and the DNR , citing a failure of proper supervision and safety procedures.
More from The Forum's Raju Chaduvula
4. Tuszka a 'special player' for the NDSU defense
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North Dakota State lost defensive ends Greg Menard, Stanley Jones and Caleb Butler from last season's NCAA Division I FCS national championship team, a trio that combined for 17 sacks, which was more than a third of the team total.
Defensive end and the defensive line in general was one of the deepest and most talented position groups last fall. Despite the key departures Bison defensive end Derrek Tuszka expects the defensive front to have another strong fall for NDSU, which opens the football regular season Aug. 31 against Butler at Target Field in Minneapolis.
"We lost some big-time playmakers on the defensive line, but it also gives some younger guys opportunities," said Tuszka, from Warner, S.D. "Everybody has got their own style of play and it's going great so far."
The 6-foot-5, 246-pound Tuszka tied for second on the team last season with 7.5 sacks along with Cole Karcz, who is also returning for his senior season. The 6-foot-4, 271-pound Karcz is set to start at defensive tackle.
More from The Forum's Eric Peterson
5. State record zander
Sam Wenner is a bass angler by choice and says he doesn’t spend much time fishing walleyes. So, it was only natural for the Jamestown, N.D., fisherman to be casting a bass lure along the outside of a weed edge Saturday afternoon, Aug. 17, on Spiritwood Lake.
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Wenner certainly wasn’t targeting walleye or its European cousin, the zander. And he certainly wasn’t thinking about state records.
That’s what he caught, though, when he hooked into a behemoth zander that measured 35⅝ inches and weighed 15.91 pounds on a certified scale. Pending results from routine genetic tests, Wenner will have the new state zander record.
The previous record, which Christopher Sayler of Jamestown caught July 17, 2003, in Spiritwood, weighed 11 pounds, 3 ounces and measured 32 inches long, records from the North Dakota Game and Fish Department show.
