Sheriff: Body found in Douglas County field likely missing student
Updated: 1:15 p.m. | Posted: 6 a.m.
A body found in a farm field in west-central Minnesota is likely that of a missing college student, sheriff's officials said Tuesday.
A farmer in Orange Township found the remains Monday afternoon and called the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, according to Sheriff Troy Wolberson.
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Wolbersen said in a statement Tuesday that investigators believe the remains are those of 18-year-old Laura Ann Schwendemann, a freshman at the University of Minnesota, Morris, who had lived in nearby Starbuck. Schwendemann was last seen Oct. 14 at a gas station in Alexandria with a man known to her, investigators have said. That man is under investigation, the sheriff said.
The woman's grandmother, Dagny Schwendemann, of Starbuck, said Laura had stopped by her home alone on Oct. 10 and nothing seemed to be amiss or out of the ordinary.
Schwendemann said her granddaughter got good grades at Minnewaska Area High School, but hadn't yet decided on a course of study at Morris.
"I'm remembering that nice smile, of course. She was pretty good at playing piano — just a really nice person," Schwendemann said Tuesday.
More than a dozen law enforcement agencies have conducted extensive ground and air searches for Schwendemann since she disappeared.
A vigil in Schwendemann's memory is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Fron Lutheran Church in Starbuck.