I'll try to add to this blog every day, but as I'm working full time, it's not always possible.
First, I'll post the text to a letter I wrote back in May 2003, several months after having first informed the Sheriff's Department of the information I was aware of as of that time. This letter gives a pretty thorough history of what happened (from my point of view) between the murder and May 2003.
I've redacted names of innocent people for their protection, but will not, of course, redact names of those who were and are involved.
I remember waking up early in the morning of May 19 and writing this letter, because I was literally afraid for my life. Tom Hinze had repeatedly threatened me over the phone from where he was living in North Dakota, saying he was just "3 hours away", and reminding me that he "knew every trail on the Birch Point Road". As many of you know, the Birch Point Road is a fairly remote rural area, with a lot of trails through the woods between Caribou Lake and where I used to live.
I sent one copy of this letter to the Sheriff's Department, certified mail with a return receipt, and I printed out several more copies which I hand-delivered to several neighbors. Just in case something DID happen to me by the person who'd threatened my life, I wanted more than just the Sheriff's Department to have a record of my testimony and complaints.
Later in this blog, I will relate more history of WHY I believe the Sheriff\s Department adamantly refused to do an honest investigation based on my info, but I think this May 19, 2003 letter is a good starting point.
Thanks for reading!
To Whom it may concern:
I,
Lloyd Wagner, am a witness to the following:
1. a.
Tom Hinze was wearing a pair of New Balance shoes in late August 2000, on the
day he was prematurely released from the St. Louis County jail because his
paperwork had been "lost". The
shoes were bigger than his feet. He normally wears a size 9.
b.
I asked Mr. Hinze where he got the shoes, which were different than the
work boots he usually wore. He told me that as he'd been barefoot when he was
arrested, and had to walk out of jail, the jail had given him these shoes from
storage.
c. I distinctly know that the shoes
were New Balance shoes because I remember making the comment that Mr. Hinze
would have to learn to keep his balance all over again on these new shoes.
d. The shoes did not take on any
significance to me until September 2001 when I read an article in the Duluth
Budgeteer concerning the anniversary of the murder of Tina Langenbrunner. In
fact, I did not even immediately recall the fact that they were New Balance shoes.
Until after I was told that the shoes the police were looking for were that
brand, the shoes had seemed completely insignificant to me, and I hadn't
thought of them for over a year. All I immediately remembered was that the
shoes were black with white markings, that they had been bigger than Mr.
Hinze's feet, and that he'd told me he'd been given them out of storage at the
jail.
2. a. I had heard that a black mini-van
had been mentioned in connection to the murder of Ms. Langenbrunner. Mr. Hinze
had been driving a black mini-van during August 2000, but it had been impounded
when he was arrested for DWI. I knew this van was still in impound when Ms.
Langenbrunner was murdered, and so I discounted neighborhood suspicions that
Mr. Hinze may have been the murderer (because of his habit of driving around in
the middle of the night between Proctor, Floodwood, and Alborn, both on Hiway 2
and on the back roads). I pointed out to several people that his van was in
impound that night, and therefore he couldn't have been driving around.
b.
Nevertheless, my suspicions about Tom Hinze were belatedly aroused a
year later, because of my recollection of the flashy shoes Tom had been wearing
when released from jail.
XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX (names redacted)
and I went to the St. Louis County Sheriff's Department where I spoke with Mr.
Ross Litman and Ms. Sally Burns.
c. Mr. Litman pointed out that Mr.
Hinze's van had been in impound the night of the murder. He asked me if there
were any other vehicle Mr. Hinze could have been driving that night. I answered
there was none that I could think of.
d. On my way home from the Sheriff's
office, it suddenly struck me that Mr. Hinze could have easily used one of my
cars that night. He was staying in a camping trailer on my property in early
September, prior to leaving town to head west to look for work, and was using
the bathroom in my house. I have the habit of throwing my car keys on the
dining room table when I come in the house, and since I live in the country,
I've sometimes even been sloppy about leaving them in the car.
e. As soon as I got home, I called
Mr. Litman immediately to tell him that Mr. Hinze could have possibly stolen
one of my cars that night. I told Mr. Litman that there were two cars in my
yard in September 2000: a Chevy Corsica, and a 1987 Nissan Sentra. Mr. Litman
asked me questions about "it" or "the car", and prior to
answering each question, I asked him if he was referring to the Corsica, or the
Nissan.
f. Mr. Litman made it clear to me
that he was referring to the 1987 Nissan. He asked me, "Did it have
matching tires?" The Nissan did not.
He asked me, "Where is the car now?" The Nissan was sitting
broken down in the yard of XXXXXXX (name redacted), on Munger Shaw Road near
Taft, and soon to be scrapped. Mr. Litman asked me, "You sold the
car?" Yes, I had sold the Nissan, as it was worn out.
g.
Mr. Litman then informed me that he was interested in a van, not a
Nissan passenger car, (which made me wonder why he had asked specifically about
a Nissan passenger car, and was not interested in any information about a
Corsica).
h.
Shortly after talking to Mr. Litman, I realized that I still had the
tires that had been on the Nissan a year earlier, and I called and left a
message for Mr. Litman concerning this fact.
i. Eventually, after I talked to Ms.
Langenbrunner's mother and her uncle, Mr. Jim DuPois, a St. Louis County deputy
and a Fondulac Reservation deputy came together to my house to see the tires.
The tires were down the road in XXXXXXXX’s (name redacted) garage, where I had
put them for safe keeping, not wanting them in a pile on my property, in case
Mr. Hinze should show up in town.
j.
The deputies seemed impatient, and told me, "If these aren't the
tires, we're not coming back to look at anything else."
k.
Not long after, Ms. Sally Burns called to tell me these were not the
tires.
l.
I went to XXXXXXX’s (name redacted) to retrieve my tires. He told me the
deputies had said, "The tire we're looking for is a bigger tire, and has
anti-hydroplaning grooves running down the tread of the tire, not a
diamond-shaped tread as these have."
m. I started thinking some more
about the Nissan I'd owned a year earlier, and suddenly remembered that one of
the tires on the car HAD been a 14-inch tire, though the rest were 13-inch
tires. It was a 14-inch tire mounted on the donut spare tire rim. That tire was
still on the car, and I asked XXXXXXXX’s (name redacted) son to retrieve it for
me.
It's a little-known fact that the
miniature tire on the donut rim can be replaced with a real tire, but a 14-inch
tire, rather than a 13-inch as is stock on the car. This particular tire was/is a Goodyear
Invicta GA, size P185/70R14 87T. Serial Number E13 0289063. There is an additional serial number of
229 on the tire. This tire has anti-hydroplaning grooves, rather than a
diamond-shaped tread. It is mounted on a 14-inch donut spare tire rim from a
1987 Nissan Sentra. It is a four-hole rim, with the holes 2 3/4 inches apart
(from center to center), and the center hole 2 1/4 inches in diameter. The
tread print is almost worn out on this tire, but not totally. I enclose a print
of it.
n.
Since I had been told in a no-uncertain manner that the police weren't
going to look at anything more I had to show them, I brought this tire to a
friend's house on the Fondulac Reservation, and informed Mr. Jim Dupois, Ms.
Langenbrunner's uncle, where this tire was located. Mr. Dupois told me he would
inform his nephew, who is on the Cloquet Police force.
o. Though this was well over a year
ago, I haven't heard anything since.
3. a.
Mr. Hinze informed me one morning in early September 2000, "If it
smells funny around the trailer, it's because I burned some old clothes in the
stove." He also informed me that morning, that he'd taken my car to the
bottle shop to buy a bottle of vodka, and that he hoped I wouldn't mind. I
didn't say anything, but started taking the car keys into my bedroom with me.
Mr. Hinze left on the bus a couple of days later, saying that since his
paperwork had been "lost", he was going to Washington State.
b.
Not long after, I heard that some people on this road were questioned
one day by the police about Mr. Hinze's whereabouts. I hadn't been home that
day, and I assumed that Mr. Hinze's lost DWI paperwork had been found.
c.
About the same time, someone called me and said she was looking for
information about Tom Hinze's whereabouts. She didn't identify herself, or say
why she wanted to know about where he was. I just said that he had headed out
toward Washington, and I didn't know exactly where he was.
She also asked if he had left
property at my place. Since anything Mr. Hinze had left at my place had been
bought and paid for by me, or was in safekeeping for Mr. Hinze, I assumed I was
talking to a sister of his he'd repeatedly told me about. Mr. Hinze told me
several times that his sister didn't help clean out their mother's place when
she sold it, but was complaining about the way Tom had disposed of some of the
property. I told the person I assumed was Mr. Hinze's sister, that Tom's mother
had sold the place, and that he had no more property around here.
d.
Sometime later, a warrant for Tom Hinze's DWI arrest appeared in the
Duluth News Tribune.
e.
Also sometime later, I became aquainted for the first time with my
neighbor XXXXXXX (name redacted), who told me that a woman detective had
questioned some of the people on this road about Mr. Hinze's whereabouts. Then,
I thought perhaps the person who had called me was from the police, but since I
had no idea where Tom was at that time, there was no use in calling back.
4. a.
Mr. Hinze has called me on the phone from out of state, and threatened
me several times. It seems he was questioned by the police in Kalispell,
Montana, where he was living in 2001. Since I was the only one who Mr. Hinze
had informed he was living in Kalispell, when Mr. Hinze was questioned by the
police, it was not hard for him to figure out it was me who had informed the
St. Louis County Sheriff's Department where he was.
b.
Not only did Mr. Hinze threaten me over the phone, but he also sent a post
card to XXXXXXX (name redacted) saying he was coming back here to
"straighten things out" with me, and that he was "pissed
off" at me.
c.
Last week I returned late Tuesday evening from an out-of-town trip, and
two days later, XXXXXXX (name redacted) told me that Tom Hinze was in town, and
on this road, staying with XXXXXXX (name redacted). I immediately started
keeping my doors locked as tight as possible, and called Mr. Jim Dupois to ask
him to inform his nephew on the Cloquet Police Department that Mr. Hinze was in
town.
Mr. Dupois said that he didn't know
anything about this Tom Hinze beyond what I had told him, but assured me that
he would inform his nephew. I expected to be called by some police agency about
Mr. Hinze being in town, as he still has a DWI warrant in Minnesota, but I got
no call.
d. I made some calls around the
neighborhood and heard from XXXXXX (name redacted) that Mr. Hinze was going out
of his way to say he was NOT "pissed off" at me. Then I heard the
conflicting story from XXXXXXX (name redacted) on Old Hiway 53, that Mr. Hinze
had said he should "just kill" me, and "get it over with".
d.
On Saturday, May 17, I was telling a couple of friends about this
situation, and as they are both fairly large men, they suggested we go down to XXXXXXX’s
(name redacted) and see if Mr. Hinze was there. He was. My friends casually
mentioned that they were from Chicago, and made some small talk for a couple of
minutes. One said he was going to be staying with me for a couple of weeks.
e.
While we were at XXXXXXX’s (name redacted), XXXXXXX (name redacted) stopped
in and saw that Mr. Hinze had been driving a van which was registered in her
father XXXXXXX’s (name redacted) name. XXXXXXX (name redacted) had been
thinking of buying this van from her father. XXXXXXX (name redacted) became angry at seeing
the van driven by Mr Hinze in a totally drunken state, took the keys, and said
she was going to call 911 about the matter (and about Mr Hinze being in town).
f. After XXXXXXX (name redacted)
left, I heard Mr. Hinze say, referring to XXXXXXX (name redacted), "I am
very mad. I'm controlling it now, but pretty soon it's going to explode. I'll
take care of everyone at once." He was looking at me when he said this,
with a smirk on his face.
g. About an hour later, while back
at my house, I heard that Mr. Hinze had been arrested for his DWI warrant. This
may lock him up for too short of a time, in relationship to what I am convinced
he has done, and leave me in physical danger once he is released.
Any testimony I have offered to the
Sheriff's Department seems to be being taken with a grain of salt, and my
testimony has also been denigrated to Mr. Dupois and other members of Tina
Langenbrunner's family, and also to Mr. Philip Wagner of the Minnesota Bureau
of Criminal Apprehension. Mr. Wagner did not feel it important enough to even
interview me personally, when I tried to get in contact with him. Instead, I
heard second-hand that Mr. Wagner had been told that "Tom Hinze is not a
suspect in this case."
For that reason, I've decided to
have copies of this statement notarized, and to send them certified mail
requesting a return receipt.
Lloyd
Eugene Wagner
May
19, 2003
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