Sudden Arrest in the Cold Case

As some people may question why I went to Laos, then came back to Duluth, Minnesota and then went back to Thailand, I feel it is necessary to give some more  background information/history about myself, before I continue to talk directly about the Langenbrunner case. Please bear with a few paragraphs (in italics, below).

After I found I could no longer get a visa to work in Laos in the fall of 2011, I considered crossing the Mekong into Thailand to look for teaching work there. I didn't know anyone in Thailand, however, or where to begin looking for a job. I ended up going back to Duluth, and stayed at my sister and brother-in-law's house in Munger. The neighbors and I talked about the Langenbrunner matter from time to time. 

I told one of the neighbors that I had a copy of that photograph of the Camel advertising jacket that the "friends" of Trina Langenbrunner had mentioned to me at a meeting at my house in Twig before I went to Laos, the jacket that I have mentioned in a previous post on this blog.

[Notice: I apologize that the information given about the jacket in this post and previously is in error. Please see Post 16 of this blog, for more details of how that error occurred.]

As this jacket matched the description of the jacket that Trina’s "friends" had told me was found at the murder scene, I was looking for an opportunity to take the photograph up to Brookston. I wanted to be sure that my friend up there had received the copy I mailed from Laos back in 2005, and to be sure that Trina’s “friends” had received it from him. At that time, I still thought that the two guys who had claimed to be "friends" of Trina were really only that, and I didn't suspect that they were more likely from the Sheriff's Department.
My friends from Munger were struggling financially, as a lot of people were/are in the USA, and I really didn't want to bother them to spend money to buy gas to haul me several miles up to Brookston. I didn't even have the phone number of my friend in Brookston, so I wouldn't even know if he'd be home when we got there.
However, I started using my sister's garage to make some rustic stools, which I began to sell, and thus I had a little money in my pocket again.
Then suddenly another person who lived in the Munger area showed up. This was Bob Stoneman, the guy who was the very first to tell me back in 2001 that he thought that Tom Hinze may have been the murderer, because the Sheriff’s Department had mentioned a “black Chrysler mini-van” in connection with the murder scene. As related in previous posts, Tom did indeed have a black mini-van of that description, but I knew first-hand that his vehicle was in impound the week of the murder. Therefore, I discounted any suspicions about him – until, also as related in previous posts, I (1) was made aware of the footprints of the size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes found at the murder scene, (2) heard from an excited Sheriff Litman about the tracks from mismatching tires, and then later, just before I left Minnesota for Laos, (3) heard of the red and tan Camel advertising jacket from the “friends” of Trina Langenbrunner.
Bob Stoneman was on “meds”, however, and had the reputation of switching back and forth without warning. In 2003 he told me in a gruff and angry voice, during the time that Tom Hinze was threatening my life, that no matter how sure I was that I had seen those shoes on Tom a few days before the murder, I had better "shut [my] mouth, or [I'd] end up losing the farm" (which did in fact happen, as I’ve related in previous posts).
Bob told me that he personally knew who had murdered a Hermantown boy named John Wold back in the 1960s, but when he had been told by the powers-that-be that he DIDN’T know who murdered John Wold, Bob had enough sense to shut his mouth as told. And, Bob told me in 2003 that if I didn’t shut my mouth as told, Tom Hinze would sue me for libel (which I kind of hoped Tom WOULD do, but he never did, of course).
Anyway, during the summer of 2012, Mr. Stoneman tried to cause a rift between my Munger friends and myself by slandering my personal character to them. One evening as I was at my friend’s house and we were sitting around a campfire enjoying a few beers, there was a small ruckus when Mr. Stoneman came over and grabbed me around the throat and repeated his slander.
I was a little hoarse for a couple of days after that, but there were no more serious consequences, so I figured I would forget about it. My friends told me that Mr. Stoneman had been getting weirder and weirder, as he has been taking "meds" for depression for years. I figured I’d just stay away from "Stonie" the best I could.
And that should be enough background information about myself, for the time being. I will now continue with my testimony in the Langenbrunner murder.

    It was less than a week after that little ruckus, that I read in the News Tribune that Sheriff Ross Litman had suddenly held a press conference to announce the arrest of Joseph Couture in the "cold case" of the Trina Langenbrunner murder. I immediately asked my friend to take me up to Brookston, as I wanted to talk to my friend up there and take him that photograph.
We went up to Brookston, and my friend was home. He was angry at me, and told me that it should have been obvious to me that those two “friends” of Trina’s who had been at my house back in 2004 were not really “friends”, but cops. He said that if I had wanted to send the cops that picture of the jacket, I should have sent it to the cops, and not tried to involve him. Then he told me that evidently the Sheriff’s Department had some “witness” to testify that Joseph Couture had done the murder, and that’s why they arrested him.
I really didn’t know what to do, after that. I knew for sure I had seen the size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes on Tom Hinze (who normally wore size 9 shoes) just a few days before the murder, I knew for sure Tom had told me he’d burned clothing in the wood-stove in the trailer the week of the murder, I knew for sure that Tom had every opportunity to take my Nissan car that week (and in fact had told me that he DID take it), I knew for sure that I’d had that conversation with Ross Litman about the mismatching tires on the Nissan, and I knew for sure that the Sheriff’s department had never even bothered to take an official statement from me – but I didn’t know who the “witness” supposedly was and I didn’t know who Joseph Couture was. I thought I’d better just lay low and see what happened next, in the case. 
Below (indented) is the account from the Duluth News Tribune telling about the arrest in the Langenbrunner case, annotated with some of my comments (in red font). This article is being quoted for educational purposes.

Published June 18, 2012, 03:20 PM

Bail set at $1 million for suspect in Cloquet cold-case murder

UPDATE: According to the criminal complaint, an unnamed witness said that around the time of Tina Langenbrunner's murder, Joseph John Couture came to a home covered in blood, lighted a fire with the aid of gasoline, stripped off his clothing and shoes and burned them.

By: Mark Stodghill, Duluth News Tribune

St. Louis County Sheriff Ross Litman said he and his office’s investigators, both those retired and active, never considered Trina Langenbrunner’s murder a “cold case,” because they continued to work it since her slaying.

It took nearly a dozen years, but Litman and St. Louis County Attorney Mark Rubin said Monday that they are confident enough evidence has been produced to convict Joseph John Couture of murder for allegedly stabbing Langenbrunner to death on Sept. 3, 2000.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Couture at his Cloquet home on Friday afternoon and he was arraigned in State District Court on Monday, charged with intentional second-degree murder and second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

“I, and the officers working on this case — many of whom are standing here in this room against that back wall — have no doubt that the person that we arrested last Friday is responsible for Trina’s death,” Litman said during a Monday afternoon news conference at the Public Safety Building on North Arlington Road.

“Joe Couture’s arrest on Friday is the culmination of nearly 12 years of investigative work consisting of follow-up of just under 1,000 leads, hundreds of interviews, forensic results and the cooperation of witnesses,” Litman said.

However, none of the authorities was prepared to say what new evidence was developed, or what changed to allow them to bring charges now, and why it took nearly a dozen years for witnesses to come forward.

After the news conference, Litman, Rubin and Assistant County Attorney Jessica Smith, who will be the lead prosecutor in the case, all said those questions will eventually be answered as the case proceeds toward a potential trial. (Comment from Lloyd Wagner, 5-25-2014: None of those questions were answered, however. All that the public has got is what the police CLAIM that the unnamed witness said, plus Couture’s sudden confession, some of which doesn’t exactly match, either. I’ll say more about that later.)

A $100,000 reward had been offered to solve Langenbrunner’s murder. Litman and Smith both said no one has come forward to claim it.

Judge Dale Harris granted Smith’s request to set Couture’s bail at $1 million. The defendant is a convicted Level 3 sex offender.

Langenbrunner, a 33-year-old mother of three, was last seen hitchhiking in the area of Brookston Road between 1:30 and 2 a.m. on Sept. 3, 2000. Couture was a neighbor of Langenbrunner at the time. The victim’s stabbed body was discovered off a rural road in southern St. Louis County.

Couture has provided a number of statements to authorities. He said he knew the victim but had no contact with her for a significant amount of time before her death. However, he admitted he was driving his gray minivan in the immediate area and at the approximate time the victim was last seen alive. (Comment from Lloyd Wagner, 5-26-2014: Back in 2000-2001, word was out that the police were looking for a BLACK mini-van, NOT a gray minivan. Tom Hinze’s minivan WAS black, and that is one reason some neighbors, including Bob Stoneman of Canosia, suspected Tom in the murder. However, I knew for a fact that Tom’s black minivan was in impound the night of the murder, and so I initially discounted their suspicions. My 1987 Nissan WAS charcoal gray. No one was talking about a charcoal gray vehicle then, or my suspicions may have been aroused right away, then. Inexplicably, the minivan in the murder has changed colors from black to gray over the years. Unfortunately, I don’t have any old newspaper clippings of the story available – I did save them, but they are not readily available to me, if indeed they still exist, in storage.)

(Comment from Lloyd Wagner 11-10-2014 These original notes in red font dated 5-26-2014 were written and sent to Bob Boone, publisher of the Duluth Reader Weekly, an “Alternative Newspaper” in Duluth, nearly 6 months ago, along with other documents I’ve published in this blog. I’d been hoping that the Reader would be aware that all testimony concerning a murder case should be thoroughly investigated, and that the telling point should be DNA evidence, rather than a “confession”, which has so often in history been induced by police, and then later recanted and proven faIse.

I never got a direct answer from Bob Boone at all. I asked my brother-in-law Ed Newman, from Munger, who writes an art column for the Reader, if he would try to get an answer from Bob Boone. Mr. Boone's "final answer" was no comment, no refusal, no nothing at all, but he just left me hanging, until I finally decided to start this blog on my own. Some real "journalistic integrity" there, Mr. Boone.

According to the criminal complaint:

A witness told investigators that Couture, 41, of Cloquet, went to the Brookston Bar, also known as Stoneybrook Saloon, on Sept. 2, 2000. The witness said they were awakened when Couture returned to the residence. (Comment from Lloyd Wagner, 5-26-2014:  The Stoneybrook Saloon is in the town of Brookston, about ¾ mile from Highway 2. I vaguely remember reading that Langenbrunner had last been seen in a bar near Saginaw, right on Highway 2, and not that she was seen hitch-hiking … but as before, I don’t have the clippings anymore.)

 (Comment from Lloyd Wagner, 1-3-2015: I finally, after a long delay, have received the original newspaper articles, and they have, as I feared, shown that some of my recollections were not correct. Some of it is irrelevant, but my misconception about the Camel jacket is relevant, and I sincerely apologize. Please see Post 16 of this blog for explanations and corrections.) 

The witness said Couture was covered in blood, lighted a fire with the aid of gasoline, stripped off his clothing and shoes and burned them.  
The defendant’s burned shoes were New Balance brand and had been purchased by the witness. The witness said that Couture drove an ATV toward a river behind the residence. When he returned, he demanded that his van be taken to be washed immediately and he took a shower. The witness saw large amounts of blood smeared on the outside of the van and coated on the steering wheel of the vehicle. (Comment from Lloyd Wagner, 5-26-2014: On the first anniversary of the murder in September 2001, the Duluth Budgeteer news article specifically mentioned SIZE 11 or 12 New Balance shoes. I remember that very distinctly, as it made me jerk when I read it, as I vaguely remembered Tom wearing some sporty shoes when he was released from jail that day just before the murder, and I distinctly remember that they were bigger than his feet.   
Is that the size shoes that the witness bought? Who did the witness buy the shoes for? I would assume that he bought them for someone with size 11 or 12 feet. Also, it would be interesting to know just WHO took the van WHERE to have it washed.  
These questions will all be answered, as the case proceeds towards trial (wink wink).
I never noticed any blood on my charcoal gray Nissan – but I had an outdoors garden hose with the faucet about 200 feet from my house, and it would have been very simple for Tom to have rinsed the car off using that hose after returning in the middle of the night. I never would have noticed anything, as the area around the faucet was unmown grass. Tom did tell me he had “borrowed” the car one morning that week, and he did tell me that same morning that he had “burned some old clothes in the stove in the trailer.”
XXXXXXX(Name redacted), XXXXXXX(Name redacted’s) son and XXXXXXX(Name redacted’ s) brother, did look at the Nissan before his father had it scrapped, and he told me that it looked as though there were streak marks on the head-liner of the car that looked as though someone may have wiped blood off their hands on the headliner of the car. The car was almost ridiculously worn-out at the time of the murder, and I don’t ever recall having looked at its headliner, nor would I have taken notice of any particular marks, if I had looked … not until after my phone conversation about the car with Ross Litman, that is, when he was at first all excited about that Nissan and it’s mismatched tires, then just as suddenly, wasn’t at all interested. As I’ve said, the police absolutely refused to go look at the charcoal-gray Nissan before it was scrapped, even though they were informed of the streaks on the head-liner.) 
The witness said that after that day, Couture would comment on his ability to kill a person, having done it before. The witness reported that Couture said he had killed Langenbrunner, and he threatened to kill the witness in the same fashion.
The witness said that before Sept. 3, 2000, Couture had carried a knife in a sheath on his belt. After Sept. 3 of that year, the witness never saw the knife again.
The witness said that Couture claimed to have disposed of evidence down the trail where he drove his ATV.
At 10 a.m. on Sept. 3, 2000, a passerby in the area of Duff Road and Highway 2 discovered Langenbrunner’s body lying in a driveway near a gravel pit.
The victim had been repeatedly stabbed in the torso, back and face. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be blood loss from multiple stab wounds. She also appeared to have been sexually assaulted.
Investigators found tire marks and shoe patterns for both Couture and Langenbrunner at the scene where her body was found. The tire marks were determined to have been made by a Dodge or Plymouth minivan. The shoe pattern for the suspect’s shoes were consistent with a New Balance model shoe. At the time of the homicide, Couture owned an older-model gray Dodge minivan. A witness saw a vehicle matching that description at the crime scene about 3  a.m. on Sept. 3, 2000. (Comment from Lloyd Wagner, 5-26-2014: I asked some mechanic friends of mine if it is possible to tell with certainty from tire tracks just what make of vehicle made those tracks. Their general answer was “No”, though you CAN tell for sure what kind of tires were on the car. As far as type of vehicle, you can narrow things down by measuring the width between left and right tracks (though that’s not certain, of course, because there are in-set and out-set rims, and there would be no way of knowing what kind of rims were on the vehicle). Also, you can narrow things down by measuring the length between front and rear wheels (this would only be measurable by the tracks if the vehicle were in the process of making a turn while making the tracks).
One mechanic did tell me that Dodge and Plymouth minivans used 13 inch tires in their earliest year(s) of production, then later went to 15-inch tires. But the hubs changed also, and you couldn’t just switch between different sized tires without changing the whole hub assembly as well. The wheels wouldn’t fit.
As I’ve said elsewhere, the tires on my Nissan were 13-inch, with the exception of the one (left rear, if I remember correctly), that was a small 14-inch tire mounted on the donut spare rim.
The questions of what size tires made the tracks at the murder scene, just exactly how it was determined with certainty that those tires were mounted on a black charcoal gray Dodge or Plymouth minivan, and the name of the witness who actually saw this vehicle at the scene of the crime will all be answered as the case proceeds towards trial (wink wink).) 
The criminal complaint refers in generalities to DNA gathered from the victim’s body that can’t be excluded as coming from Couture. Smith said there will be more precise scientific evidence linking the defendant to the crime if the case goes to trial with an expert on DNA testifying. (Comment from Lloyd Wagner, 5-26-2014: It’s generally the same kind of DNA as Couture’s, and that's close enough, I guess. IF (not “when”) the case goes to trial, there’ll be more precise linking (wink wink).) 
The witnesses are not referred to by name or gender in the criminal complaint. They are identified simply as Witness 1 and Witness 2.
Witness 2 also said that Couture confessed to committing the murder. The witness said that Couture believed he was going to have sex with Langenbrunner that night but she rejected him. The witness said that Couture said he “snapped,’’ and “it went brutal.” Couture said he “whooped the dog s--- out” of the victim, “stabbed her, choked her out,” according to the witness.
At this point, authorities are taking precautions to protect the witnesses.
Prosecutor Smith filed a certificate of nondisclosure of witnesses under the Rules of Criminal Procedure. She cited Couture’s history of threatening witnesses in past cases and told the court that she wanted to protect the safety of witnesses in the current case.
Court rules permit witnesses’ names to remain confidential until they testify at trial if the prosecutor files a written certificate with the trial court stating that to identify a witness may endanger the integrity of a continuing investigation or subject witnesses or other persons to physical harm. (Comment from Lloyd Wagner, 5-26-2014: And the witness never needs to testify at all, or to be identified at all, if the case never goes to trial, at all! (Wink wink).) 
Trina Louise (St. Germaine) Langenbrunner was born Sept. 12, 1966 in St. Paul and attended Humboldt High School there. She was a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe and worked as a home health aide while living in Cloquet. She’s survived by three children, Sheila, Todd Jr., and Shelly Tormanen.
Rubin said that no decision has been made on whether to file a notice to present the case to a grand jury to seek a first-degree murder indictment. His office has 14 days to file such a notice.
Smith will be assisted in prosecuting the case by assistant St. Louis County Attorney Jonathan Holets.
The court ruled that because of a lack of income and assets, Couture qualifies to be represented by a public defender. Northeastern Minnesota’s chief public defender Fred Friedman has appointed lawyers Cynthia Evenson and Kevin Cornwell to represent Couture.
Couture’s next court appearance is scheduled for June 28. 
Tags: news, crime, courts, police, cloquet

What happens next in this story is a new accusation of a mysterious and nonsensical nature, and a confession that makes no sense.
Please stay tuned!

Some Correspondence With "Misty Johnson"

Again, I beg your pardon for offering a little background information (in italics, below). Obviously, a lot has happened to me over the past 14 years since Trina Langenbrunner was murdered, and a lot of it is not directly related to my still unsuccessful attempts to get my testimony into the official record. You'd think the Sheriff's Department would have been legally OBLIGATED to take my statements and enter them into official evidence, but evidently, they do what they please, and the law is for other people ... 

I left Minnesota in December 2004, and went to look for teaching work in the Lao PDR (Laos), with relatives of refugee friends I'd met in Minnesota.
I was in Laos for a little over 7 years, and ended up spending everything I'd saved from selling the farm, plus money from my dad, besides. I ended up basically with nothing, except a much-increased knowledge of the Lao language, and 7 years of teaching experience. 
I finally couldn't get a visa to work there anymore, and had to leave my house, my motorbike, nearly all my personal possession, and my fiancee behind. (That's another story.)
Now I am in Thailand, just about a mile from where I lived in Laos. It's heart-breaking to be separated both from my kids and grandkids in the US, and from my fiancee in Laos besides.
Fortunately, the Lao and Thai languages are very similar, especially up here in the Northeast part of Thailand which actually used to be joined with Laos, so my students at the University understand Lao. I'm working full-time now, enjoy teaching nearly as much as I used to enjoy farming, and my fiancee comes over to visit whenever she can. And, I am happy that nobody in my circle has been murdered, though my life has been threatened.

While I was in Laos, I did my best to keep track of the news back in Duluth, mostly by reading the Duluth News Tribune. The Tribune used to offer a comments section where readers could comment on selected news stories. I took advantage of that from time to time to make comments on the cover-up of the evidence in the Trina Langenbrunner case. 
These comments sections were not directly on the News Tribune page, but through blogging sites, such as WordPress, Area Voices, etc. There were more than one site used over time, but I don't remember exactly the names or dates when the Tribune changed blog software.
Then one time, I believe about in 2008,  I got a "friend request" on the blog I was commenting on. The person who sent the request was a "Misty Johnson", which rather rang a bell, as "Misty Johnson" is a detective character in a mystery series. I kind of suspected "Misty" was a pseudonym for someone from the Sheriff's Department. I was happy to repeat my information to anyone, though, even "Misty".
We began a short "friendship", and "Misty" pumped me for info about what I knew about the Langenbrunner murder. 
"Misty" made derisory comments about the Sheriff's Department, especially investigator Sally Burns, and led me to believe that Sally was also posting on the same blog, under the name of "Yellow Dog", or (something similar to that). "Misty" pretended to "call Sally out", and then suddenly "Yellow Dog" didn't appear on the blog anymore -- which I guess "Misty" figured would make me feel more friendly to "her".
It was kind of funny, actually, as I'm pretty sure it was "Misty" who was the cop, and I didn't care a hill of beans about Yellow Dog being on the same blog, anyway ... but I played along. 
Also, "Misty" had mentioned that "she" was doing a blog of "her" own. I looked for that blog on the blog-site, and found it. It was very racially biased against Native Americans, and there were some crude "jokes" on it, putting down Native Americans in Duluth and in general. 
I'm sure that the blog is still archived somewhere in cyber-space, and probably even my conversation with "Misty" -- but I haven't found them, so far. I've checked WordPress and Area Voices, without success. If any readers here are more Internet savvy than I am, or know other blog software the Tribune may have been using, maybe I could still find it. I do remember my password.
Anyway, besides telling "Misty" basically everything included in the previous posts on this blog, I also sent her a copy of the following letter which I had sent to a guy named Hunter Bear. He had been on the Internet asking for any information about a murder of a young Native American male, Russell Turcotte, in North Dakota. That murder had occurred at a time and place where Tom Hinze may very well have been at the time, and the M.O. certainly was similar to the Trina Langenbrunner murder. The body was found off a gravel road, off of Highway 2, in North Dakota. The victim had been picked up and offered a ride, evidently by a "nice guy" at a gas station, then was never seen again alive.
Another thing that had struck me, was the fact that Russell Turcotte was returning from a Rainbow Gathering when he went missing, and I knew that Tom Hinze also had attended Rainbow Gatherings. (He told me that he liked to see the naked women at these gatherings.) 
I'll post that letter, which I sent to Hunter Bear in September 2003, below.

Dear Sir:

The enclosed relates to the murder of a young Native American lady whose body was found about 1/2 mile from Highway 2, on a little-used gravel road in Brookston, Minnesota, about 20 miles from Duluth. Her body was found tortured and stabbed, about 10 miles from the bar where she was last seen, and from where she caught a ride on her way home to Floodwood, MN, where she had 2 children. I'm sending you this information because I feel it may possibly be related to the Russell Turcotte case, which I read about on your website.

There are a few facts about Tom Hinze that are not included in the enclosed letters:

1. He attended Rainbow gatherings.

2. He has lived in Lacey, Washington. I know he was there during the winter of 2000-2001, but do not know if he has been there since.

3. He was in Alabama during the spring of 2001, and was badly burned there by an explosion at a race track where he was working. I don't know what town he was in while in Alabama.

4. I once dropped him off to hitchhike westward, at the intersection of I-29 and Highway 2 -- but that was during the summer of 2001, not 2002. All I know for sure about Tom's location during the summer of 2002 is that it was somewhere west of Minnesota, very possibly on or near Highway 2. He was in Kalispell, Montana during the early months of 2002, perhaps up to May, or so. He called me from there, but my memory is not clear as to exactly when.

5. He was in Grand Forks during the winter of 2002-2003. He called me from there and threatened me, saying, "Don't forget, I'm only 4 hours away." He showed up here in the Duluth area in May 2003, then went out to Grand Forks for a short time in late May or early June, then returned to Duluth where he was put into the NorthEast Regional Correctional Center (NERCC) for a DWI. He left Duluth heading west about a month ago, pulling a 1940 Chev on a car-dolly. I don't have a description of the vehicle which was pulling the dolly, or of the person driving it.

5. The only clues that law enforcement publicly admit to having in Tina Langenbrunner's murder are a pair of "New Balance shoes, size 11 or 12", and a "black mini-van".

I don't know if any of this information is related to the Russell Turcotte case, or not, but I thought it could possibly be, and decided to send it to you.

Please write or give me a call if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Lloyd Wagner

6168 Birch Point Road

Saginaw, Minnesota  55779

218-729-9398

Hunter Bear never answered my letter directly, but through his website suggested that anyone with information or suspicions should contact the police in North Dakota. 
I had contacted the St. Louis County Sheriff's Department repeatedly about things I had seen with my OWN eyes and even had backing for. As they had repeatedly shrugged me off and denigrated my testimony without even checking it out, what would be the use of my contacting the police in North Dakota about what truly WERE only suspicions? 
The first thing any police in North Dakota would naturally do would be to contact the St. Louis County Sheriff's Department about the Langenbrunner case, and I already knew full well where that would lead.
Anyway, "Misty" thanked me for the information, and then "she" abruptly disappeared from my cyber-life forever.

And, I guess that's the end of this post. 

Please stay tuned. 

A Little More Background Information: The Big Drug Bust that Wasn't

My last post brought things up to just before I sold my house and moved to Southeast Asia to look for work. However, after posting that, I realized that I'd forgotten a fairly major happening of "background information", and I will post that in this post.
What follows below is a part of a long email that I wrote to Ron Taggart of the Public Defender's office, in July 2013, as a partial explanation of why I think the Sheriff's Department refused to DNA-test Tom Hinze (pictured left), to do any physical checks on the Nissan car that Tom had every opportunity to "borrow" the night of the murder, to even bother to ask me the location of the trailer where Tom had burned clothing in the week of the murder, or to interrogate him on my allegations that he had threatened my life.
The "powers that be" in St. Louis County have more than once violated the law themselves in egregious ways besides the refusal to investigate evidence -- especially in a terrifying "drug bust" on my property in 1998, where they didn't even come with a warrant, but nevertheless entered my house with guns drawn ... (to be continued in the narrative below). 
There was a $100,000 reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer of Trina Langenbrunner. If I had received that reward for that information, I may well have used it to get a lawyer and sue the "good old boys" who'd put me out of business as a farmer, and terrified my family at gunpoint for several hours in July of 1998.
The narrative follows below, as I originally sent it to Ron Taggart on July 17, 2013 (strangely, just a few days before Joseph Couture "confessed" to the murder of Trina Langenbrunner -- with no evidence or testimony ever having been presented to a jury).

Between 1997 and 2000, I first became aware of forced drugging being done to mental patients in the County, in many many cases, to kids. In fall 1997, I wrote a letter which was printed (after being edited) by the Duluth News Tribune, about a case I had witnessed, where a young person had been "diagnosed" and drugged against her will. Then she was committed by the St. Louis County Justice System to a Cloquet facility designed for adults. Here, besides being forcibly drugged, she also witnessed the suicide of another desperate patient, was sexually molested (while a minor) by an adult female counselor, and was being strongly "encouraged" to undergo electro-shock treatment to "erase bad memories".

With the help of friends, including myself, she managed to extricate herself (at first, temporarily, then permanently) from this county-backed system of forced drugging and mistreatment. She is now in her 30's. The last I have heard, she is employed full-time and doing fine, without being drugged.

Unfortunately, the Lake Superior Drug Task Force (which I'll refer to from now on as "the Task Force"), including members Mr. Dennin Bauers and Ms. Sally Burns, put 2 and 2 together, and came up with 7. I was/am vociferously and actively against the kind of psychological and pharmaceutical abuse I described above ... so the Task Force kind of jumped to the conclusion that I must have been growing marijuana on my farm and selling it to young people.

On Thursday morning, July 16, 1998, about 10 members of the Task Force came out to my farm on the Birch Point Road, armed with guns, but with no search warrant.

I wasn't home when the Task Force arrived, but was on the road picking up the 14-year-old son of a friend, as he was going to help me weed carrots that day.

Ms. Sally Burns was the only female member of the Task Force there that day. I drove into my yard just in time to see Ms. Burns acting as "point person" for the home entry.She was crouched down to the right of the (unlocked) front door of my house, with her gun drawn, reaching out in front of her with her other hand, knocking sharply on the door.

At the same moment, another officer stepped up to the driver's door of my truck and demanded I sign a paper he shoved at me, giving my permission for the Task Force to search my house and property for marijuana.

I asked if they had a warrant. He said they didn't need one, that I should just sign where he pointed. About that instant, I saw Ms. Sally Burns going into my house with her gun drawn. I hollered, "If you don't have a warrant, get the hell out of my house!!"

"No need to swear!" the officer told me in a warning voice, as the Task Force members were standing around my yard with guns, but no warrant -- and one of them was going with her gun drawn into my house, where my son, daughter and son-in-law were still sleeping.

I will attempt to shorten a very, very long story ... the Task Force held the 4 of us in the hot sun for about 3 hours, while a couple of them went to Duluth to get a warrant. They wouldn't allow us to go inside my own house to eat, answer the phone, use the bathroom, or even for a drink of water. 

While we sweltered in the hot sun, a couple more of the Task Force made a run to the Twig Store for cold drinks and snacks for their group, which they enjoyed in front of us. I remember Mr. Dennin Bauers especially, enjoying a cold soda in an unmarked government 8-cylinder SUV parked on my lawn. He reclined back in the seat, with his feet up on the dashboard, the air-conditioning turned on, and the motor running. 

I had agreed to pay 2 people to help me weed carrots that day, and had to send them home. One of them had taken the day off from his other job, so I had to pay him for work not done. The 14-year-old boy (who was big for his age) told me later that he was spoken to rudely and treated as a criminal or gang member, because he had no I.D. When the Task Force ascertained that he really was 14 (by calling his mother who was unavailable to come and pick him up), a uniformed Sheriff's Deputy gave him a ride home in a marked Sheriff's squad car. That Deputy was Mr. Ross Litman, by the way, before he was elected Sheriff. According to the boy's account (which I heard second-hand from his outraged mother), Mr. Litman had driven north on the Munger Shaw Road, known for curves and deer-crossings, at speeds up to 85 m.p.h.

Later, the team which had gone to Duluth returned with their belated search warrant. Some of the Task Force went into my house (and left quite a mess), while others went out into the garden and woods. A couple of them stayed to guard the 4 of us. 

About that time, Tom Hinze (on his way home to his parents' place farther down the Birch Point Road where he lived in a camping trailer at the time) drove into my yard, right into the middle of everything. I tried to wave him off, as I knew he had no driver's license, and suspected (rightly) that he was stinking drunk. Dennin Bauers asked his name. "My name's Tom," he answered loudly. Dennin Bauers asked his last name. Tom replied with a grin, "That's none of your damned business!"

Ms. Sally Burns then answered, "We've got ways to find out your last name, Tom," and she crouched down in front of the car with her notepad out and started to write down the license number. 

Tom grinned again, "That ain't gonna help you none. The car's not in my name! My dad taught me never to put a car into my own name." Then he told them that his dad had been a cop, the former Sheriff of Red Lake County. 

The Task Force agreed with Tom that his dad had given him sensible advice, but then Dennin Bauers told him that he should leave, now. They allowed him to leave in his car, though he was obviously in no condition to be driving.

Not long after that, the Task Force members came in from the woods, and said they hadn't found any marijuana. Then they left, with no apologies. I distinctly remember Sally Burns tell me that they had seen some pictures upstairs upstairs in my house that looked like people smoking marijuana. "You have to be careful, Lloyd," she warned me.

Later, Tom Hinze and I talked about this. I marveled that the Task Force had let him go, as drunk as he was, without calling a uniformed deputy to arrest him for DWI. 

"They like me," Tom said, with his characteristic quick laugh.

I vociferously, loudly, and publicly related and protested the illegal and terrifying actions of the Task Force that day, and I wrote letters about it, as well. My biggest fear at the time was that they could so easily frame me -- I owned 40 acres, and there was no possible way I could patrol 40 acres every night. They may have liked Tom Hinze, but I knew that they didn't like me. (*Please ask Sheriff Litman to confirm*.)

Narrative: A Meeting that Went Nowhere, December 2004

Tom Hinze, formerly of Birch Point Road in Twig, who I saw wearing size 11-12 New Balance shoes just before the Trina Langenbrunner murder in late August 2000.

Please bear with me as I give a few paragraphs of background information (in italics, below) before getting back to a direct discussion of the Trina Langenbrunner murder ...

As mentioned in previous posts and in my profile, I lived and farmed in Twig, Minnesota until the first week of December 2004, when I sold my farm and moved to the Lao PDR (Laos) . I went there to look for English-teaching work with relatives of refugee friends, who I'd helped sponsor and get started in the US, after the Vietnam War. I knew a lot of the Lao refugees as they were relatives and/or neighbors of my ex-wife, who I'd married while serving with the USAF Security Service in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand. My ex-wife was from Thakhek, Laos, just across the Mekong River from Nakhon Phanom, Thailand.

I was forced to sell my farm for financial reasons -- I couldn't possibly compete with the vegetable-growing operation that was going on at the Northeast Region Corrections Center (NERCC) during the 1990s. They were located out in Twig also, and were paying their captive labor force a couple of dollars per day, while I had to pay at least the legal minimum wage. They were selling their vegetables directly to the public at rock bottom prices, just a short distance from my farm. They were also selling to their own employees and to others to resell in Duluth.
One of their employees also had (still has, in fact) his own vegetable farm, and profited through "at-cost" goods and services he received at NERCC that other farmers had to pay full retail prices for.

I made some loud complaints about this corruption both to the County and to the State of Minnesota, and howled fairly loudly about having been put out of business and into poverty.

I made myself unpopular with the powers-that-be on that issue, and I also made myself unpopular on the issue of forced psychiatric drugging which was and is going on in most of America, including in Duluth. I've personally seen people hauled in by Sheriffs' deputies for "non compliance" with their forced drug regimen, and I've also personally seen people held down and forcibly injected with heavy-duty drugs, such as Haldol -- against their will and despite their loud pleadings. A person doesn't have to do much research on the Internet to find that these psychiatric drugs are likely to cause more problems than they cure -- including such permanent conditions such as tardive dyskinesia, and even death.  The mother of a friend of mine did die, in fact, from a diabetes reaction to Zyprexa.

But woe be onto anyone who doesn't bow down and worship the Doctor, even if the Doctor is some damned fool who doesn't know that just because a black person from Mississippi uses language differently than a white Duluthian, that fact SHOULD have absolutely nothing to do with a mental illness diagnosis. The same "Doctor" didn't even seem to know the side effects of the drug he was forcing my friend to take: she had a scabby rash all over her neck, and the "Doctor" said the meds couldn't possibly do that to her skin ... though the published side-effects of the meds included "possible epidermal reactions".

Anyway, as I mentioned in previous posts, my life had been threatened by Tom Hinze, and the Sheriff's Department refused to do anything about it. Also, the Sheriff himself had had remarks published about people who "perhaps were mentally ill", and "had yet to be diagnosed" (or words to that effect). Knowing the power of this psychiatric crowd, and their complete lack of culpability for any of their actions, plus the fact that I couldn't possibly make a living on my farm anymore, I sold my farm as of the first week of December, bought an airplane ticket, and began packing up.

Just a couple of weeks before I was to leave, I got a call from a guy who said he was a "friend of Trina Langenbrunner's". He said he'd heard from a friend of mine that I had some information about the case. I told him that yes, I did have some information. He asked if he could come over and talk to me. I told him I'd be happy to talk with him, but that he'd have to come quickly, as I was in the process of leaving the area.

He came with another man one afternoon the week before I left. They both told me that they were "friends of Trina Langenbrunner", and that they felt that the Sheriff's Department investigators were not doing a thorough investigation of the case and seemed to be dragging their feet. 

I took what they said at face value. I told them everything mentioned in the first 4 posts of this blog, and also printed out the three letters and gave them copies. I also talked about the tire from the Nissan, and gave that to them, feeling that no one else wanted to take care of it, and I certainly couldn't take it with me. 

Then one of Trina Langenbrunner's "friends" mentioned that there was yet another clue besides the size 11-12 New Balance shoe tracks (that matched the size 11-12 New Balance shoes I'd seen on Tom Hinze a few days before the murder), and the mismatched tires from the Nissan that Sheriff Litman asked so many questions about (though he then in almost the same breath said he wasn't interested in) ... This "friend" of Trina's told me that there was a "Camel jacket" that had been found at the scene of the murder.

I asked about the jacket, and he told me it was a red and tan advertising jacket for Camel cigarettes.

[Notice: I apologize that the information given about the jacket in this post is in error. Actually, these guys did not tell me the color of the jacket at the murder scene. It was black, not red and tan -- and it had evidently already been identified, back in October of 2000. They did not tell me that, either. Please see Post 16 of this blog, for more details and explanation of how this error occurred.]

That struck a bell with me, because a kid who used to live with us had such a jacket several years before, and I remembered seeing it around the farm. I even vaguely remembered a picture of someone in that jacket, but as I told the "friends", all my pictures were packed, and I'd have a heck of a time finding that one. But, I promised that if I found the picture, I would get in contact with them through the friend of mine who Trina's "friend" had mentioned the first time he called me.

I remember thinking to myself that if the Sheriff's Department had used their heads, they would have published ALL the clues in the newspapers right away, so witnesses who'd seen anything would know what the the police were looking for. But, instead they released clues one at a time, and in private, and then when I said I'd seen something, they changed their stories of what they were looking for and refused to check into what I had seen.

Later, I did find that picture of the red and tan Camel jacket, and I sent it by mail from Laos to my friend ... but I never did hear if he had turned it over to Trina's "friends". Nor did I hear anything at all, in fact, for a few years.

Thanks for reading, and please stay tuned ..... I'm trying to paste a picture of that jacket right side up, but am not having any luck right now. Here it is, sideways. Maybe I'll fix it later.
Again, I apologize. Please disregard any info on that jacket. What a headache it's been for me, too!