Four dozen guns, 5 body bags and a second police vehicle found in search of Boelter property
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Investigators who searched the home of the man suspected of killing former DFL Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark recovered four dozen firearms, including rifles, pistols and shotguns.
Judges on Friday unsealed multiple search warrants from the investigation into Vance Boelter that include details that had not been public previously. Boelter is also accused of shooting and seriously wounding DFL State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette at their home in Champlin early Saturday, about 90 minutes before killing the Hortmans.
Boelter allegedly abandoned a Ford Explorer SUV outfitted to look like a police squad car in the Hortmans’ driveway. Inside, investigators found three AK-47 style rifles, one of which Boelter had purchased in 1998. In a criminal complaint unsealed earlier this week, federal prosecutors say that police found a handwritten list of the names and addresses of Democratic elected officials along with abortion rights supporters.
The “no-knock” warrant for Boelter’s home near Green Isle that BCA Agent Brent Petersen requested just before noon Saturday lists pistols, shotguns and semi-automatic rifles found in different areas of the house and outbuildings on the 11-acre property. Investigators also recovered computers, a notecard with the names of public officials and boxes of ammunition as well as $17,940 in cash.
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Police also searched the Hortmans’ home in Brooklyn Park. When police arrived there around 3:30 a.m. Saturday, they saw a man — later determined to be Boelter — dressed as a police officer firing into the open front door of the house where he killed the couple.
In the front yard and driveway, police found more than a dozen discharged 9mm cartridge casings. Investigators also recovered several ‘less lethal’ 40mm rounds, which are foam-tipped projectiles that police typically use to incapacitate suspects or for riot control. Inside the home, investigators recovered more spent casings as well as bullets.
The warrant also indicates the general path that Boelter allegedly took when he ran away. The house backs up to the east side of Edinburgh Golf Course. Boelter allegedly ditched a holster behind the clubhouse as he fled.
Investigators recovered a Beretta handgun from the backyard of a home on the west side of the golf course. In the woods between an adjacent home and the Shingle Creek Regional Trail, police found a partially-loaded magazine, the flesh-colored silicone mask that Boelter was allegedly seen wearing in surveillance video, as well as a wig.
Timestamps on the unsealed search warrants also show that investigators moved quickly to gather evidence.
Champlin Police Department Sgt. Jeffrey Martin requested a search warrant for the Hoffmans’ house at 5:06 a.m. on Saturday, and Hennepin County Judge Jean Burdorf signed it within 10 minutes. That warrant, which was unsealed Wednesday, lists nearly a dozen bullets and bullet fragments that investigators recovered from the kitchen and dining room.
At 9:01 the same morning, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Special Agent Rachel Nelson submitted a search warrant request for the Hortmans’ house, as well as the lookalike squad car that Boelter allegedly abandoned in their driveway as he fled.
At 10:10 a.m., Nelson requested a warrant for a second police vehicle with broken windows parked at a north Minneapolis home where Boelter stayed occasionally, as well as the home itself.
Nelson writes that the homeowner contacted Minneapolis police “and reported that he knew a man named Vance Boelter.” The man, who’s not named, said that Boelter came to the home around 6 a.m. Saturday. A responding officer described the vehicle as a “retired squad.”
According to the warrant, Boelter “was wearing a cowboy hat, blue shirt, blue pants and black boots as he approached the house. He appeared to be carrying something in a paper bag.” Boelter was not seen leaving the home.
At 10:28 a.m. Saturday, BCA Agent Chad Mager requested a warrant for a storage locker about a mile from the north Minneapolis home after investigators in Brooklyn Park found a receipt for it in the lookalike squad car abandoned in the Hortmans’ driveway. Mager writes that Boelter rented the locker four days before his alleged shooting spree. Inside, investigators found gun cases, firearms cleaning supplies and a duffel bag containing five body bags.
On Sunday, BCA special agent Albert Morse requested a warrant for a WhatsApp account associated with Boelter. In his affidavit, Morse recounts an interview that investigators conducted with Boelter’s wife Jenny Boelter on Saturday. Authorities said previously that they tracked her using cell phone signals to Onamia and that she was cooperative.
Jenny Boelter allegedly “confirmed that Vance has a police-style vehicle with a light bar and police decals as well as ballistic vest. Morse adds in the search warrant request that “Jenny Boelter confirmed that Vance purchased a silicone face mask on Amazon recently.”
According to the affidavit, Jenny Boelter told investigators that she received a text from Vance on a family group chat at 6:15 a.m. Saturday and that her husband “indicated he was sorry and instructed her to get their belongings and leave the house to go to a family member’s home because people were coming with guns.”
Federal prosecutors wrote in a criminal complaint against Vance Boelter that investigators found about $10,000 in cash, two handguns, and “passports for Mrs. Boelter and her children, who were in the car with Mrs. Boelter at the time.” Jenny Boelter hasn’t been charged, and was released after speaking with law enforcement.
Investigators say Vance Boelter purchased a Buick Regal early Saturday morning in north Minneapolis. Police tracked Boelter to an area near his home after he abandoned the sedan nearby that day.
According to court documents, a resident of the area called police around 7:30 p.m. Sunday after spotting Boelter on a trail camera. SWAT teams formed a perimeter and spotted Boelter less than two hours later using an infrared camera on a drone. “He was taken into custody without incident,” according to BCA assistant special agent in charge Colleen Myhre.
Myhre, who requested a warrant for Boelter’s clothing at 11:17 p.m. Sunday, writes that police found a handgun in the backpack that Boelter was carrying and that the suspect “was completely soaked from crawling through a slough.”
Boelter allegedly targeted two other DFL elected officials — Sen. Ann Rest of New Hope and Rep. Kristin Bahner of Maple Grove. Boelter drove away from Rest’s home after being spotted by a New Hope police officer. Bahner said that she was out of town when Boelter allegedly rang her doorbell.
At a news conference late that night, authorities described the search for Boelter as the largest manhunt in Minnesota history. The 57-year-old faces both state and federal charges of murder and is scheduled to make his next appearance in federal court June 27.
