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Vance Boelter worked briefly at the University of Minnesota until the day before he allegedly stalked and killed former DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark inside their Brooklyn Park home on June 14. Boelter, 57, is also accused of shooting and seriously wounding DFL State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette about 90 minutes earlier at their home in Champlin. 

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension special agent Charles Busch, one of the many investigators assigned to track Boelter during the 43-hour manhunt on June 14 and 15, writes in a search warrant application that Boelter had been employed by the University of Minnesota and had his pay automatically deposited to New Market Bank. 

The BCA obtained records from New Market Bank, U.S. Bank, and a Sam’s Club credit card in an effort to track his purchases and transactions.  

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In a statement Tuesday, the U said that Boelter “was formerly employed in a limited temporary technician role at the University of Minnesota eye bank” from Dec. 23 to June 13. A U spokesperson declined to say whether Boelter quit or was fired but said that the university is cooperating with the state and federal investigation. 

According to documents that the U sent to MPR News in response to a public records request, Boelter earned starting pay of $20 an hour, plus $50 per procedure. The Medical School’s Department of Opthamology and Visual Neurosciences hired Boelter to work at the Lions Gift of Sight eye bank in St. Paul as a recovery technician on an as-needed basis. 

The facility obtains eyes from organ donors for cornea transplants, research, and education. The documents do not indicate how much work Boelter performed at the eye bank.

According to a resume that Boelter submitted with his job application in December, he also had been employed since August 2023 at a Twin Cities company that assists funeral homes with the removal and transportation of human remains. Five 

 were among the items allegedly found during the search of a north Minneapolis storage locker that Boelter had rented in the days before the shootings.  

Additional search warrants unsealed this week indicate that investigators struggled to track two cell phones belonging to Boelter. In an affidavit submitted to a Hennepin County judge on June 15, BCA special agent Jacob Hodapp writes that agents located a T-Mobile number for Boelter and tried to track it, but “the phone was turned off.” 

In a separate search warrant request, Hodapp writes that on June 15, the T-Mobile phone was turned on and connected with cell towers. The device “was located by law enforcement” in an unspecified place after Boelter apparently discarded it. 

Hodapp adds that BCA special agent Mike Anderson contacted Boelter’s wife Jenny Boelter by phone around 10 a.m. on June 14. 

“Jenny Boelter initially was not forthcoming with knowledge of her husband being involved in something serious,” Hodapp writes. But “after some conversation” with Anderson, “Jenny indicated she had received messages from Vance in the early morning hours of [June 14]” warning her to leave their home in Green Isle, Minn. because “there may be people with guns coming to the house.” Investigators say Jenny Boelter was cooperative and agreed to pull over and speak with investigators in the Onamia area.

In a federal affidavit unsealed last week, FBI special agent Terry Getsch writes that “Boelter and his wife had been ‘preppers,’” who had a “bailout plan” to go to her mother’s home near Menominee, Wis. 

Law enforcement stopped Jenny Boelter, who was traveling with her four children, and she allowed agents to search her vehicle. Getsch writes that investigators found passports for all five people, $10,000 in cash, and two pistols.  

In a warrant for a phone belonging to Boelter’s 18-year-old son, BCA Special Agent Chad Mager writes that while pinging Vance Boelter’s cell phone, investigators learned that his “first phone call following the shootings was to his son.” 

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The man accused of killing former DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark worked briefly at the University of Minnesota until the day before the June 14 attacks. According to documents obtained by MPR News, Vance Boelter worked as a recovery technician until June 13.

Alleged Hortman killer worked at U of M eye bank until day before shootings

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