Attempts to Correspond With Steven Hagenah (part 1)

(This post is mostly about my attempts to correspond with Steven Hagenah, retired forensic investigator from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, but there is also a short section about 2/3 of the way down (look for the red font) relating my attempt to get Joseph Couture's prison address from the Minnesota Department of Corrections. None of these boys are giving out ANY info on this case!) Thanks for reading.

 Below (indented) are two cut-and-pastes of articles that were published in the Duluth News Tribune on October 31, 2005, and on June 16, 2012.

The first article is “It’s All About the Evidence”, and the second is an announcement, “Arrest made in 2000 killing of Cloquet woman”.

Both articles contain quotes from a Mr. Steve Hagenah who at the time of the first article, was the “senior special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in Bemidji” (Minnesota), and according to the second article, “worked years on the case”.

Both articles contain this 2005 quote from Mr. Hagenah: “We spent thousands of man-hours over there working that. It has the air of solvability to it, but we’re missing some key elements: witnesses or biological evidence that would be useful to us.”

As mentioned a few weeks back in a previous blog post, I (Lloyd Wagner) didn’t always read the Duluth newspapers – and especially not in 2005, when I was first in Laos, where I barely had an Internet connection at all.

So, I first read the articles mentioning Mr. Hagenah just a month and a half ago, or so, on December 30, 2014, from the 63 pages of published articles on the Langenbrunner case that I belatedly received from the data-bank at the Duluth Public Library.

Naturally, I rather excitedly came to the conclusion that Steve is the person with whom I want to speak! Who else would know better whether all (or even any) of the information I had repeatedly supplied to the St. Louis County Sheriff’s office had actually been submitted for forensic testing, or had been -- as I suspected and still suspect -- “deep-sixed” and deliberately WITHHELD from the forensic investigators – which would CERTAINLY explain what Mr. Hagenah had complained about in 2005, that they were “missing some key elements: witnesses or biological evidence that would be useful to us.”

Or, alternatively, if Mr. Hagenah’s office HAD already received the info I’d provided, such as (1) the description of the tire that was on the Nissan, (2) the description of the shoes I had seen, and (most importantly, I’d think) (3) DNA samples from Thomas J. Hinze, from the Nissan car, and from the woodstove in which Mr. Hinze had burned clothes the week of the murder … and IF none of this info fit the actual forensic info from the case, I expected that Mr. Hagenah could very easily just inform me:

“Yes, Mr. Wagner, (1) we DID receive your description of the tire that was on your car, and it was a totally different make/size of tire from the tracks that we had, and (2) Yes, Mr. Wagner, we DID receive the description of the shoes that you saw shortly before the murder, and we’re sorry, but tracks from New Balance shoes size 11 or 12 actually DO tell the shoe color, and yes, as Sally Burns told you, those shoes were white, not black as the size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes that you saw, and (3) Yes, Mr. Wagner, we DID receive DNA information from Thomas J. Hinze, and we’re sorry, but it did NOT match the DNA info from the Langenbrunner case. And Yes, Mr. Wagner, we DID check out the Nissan car Mr. Hinze admitted driving the week of the murder, but no, there was no DNA from Trina Langenbrunner in the car, and Yes, Mr. Wagner, we did check out the ashes in the woodstove that Mr. Hinze burned clothes in before leaving town shortly after the murder, but no, Mr. Wagner, there was nothing in the ashes, either.”

Getting this information from the actual forensic investigator in the case would be like getting it straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth!

Not that I’d necessarily believe it, either, of course, even if Mr. Hagenah would tell me so, since that would contradict what Mr. Ron Taggart from the Public Defender’s Office has already told me – that his office had NOT received any such info about Tom Hinze.

I also assumed that a forensic investigator such as Mr. Hagenah, who had spent thousands of hours on the case, would want to read of my further research into such things as the weird “arson fire” that the St. Louis County investigators found out about through “breaking a jailhouse code” and had solved (!) before any of the local media had even heard about the house burning, let alone reported anything about it. The arson fire that left 2 dogs “missing and presumed dead” (leaving no skeletons behind), and that burned a house and 2 vehicles to a total loss (while causing less than $8,600 worth of damage). That weird “arson fire”.

I also assumed that a forensic investigator such as Mr. Hagenah, who had spent many years and thousands of hours on the case, would want to ensure that actual forensic evidence he had investigated did indeed match the actual forensic evidence used to convict Mr. Couture of murder.

What I immediately did then, was to do a search for a “Steve Hagenah” in “Bemidji Minnesota”, at first on Facebook. When I did find this name matched to this location, I also checked for approximate age – Mr. Hagenah was reported to be 54 years old in 2005, so I figured that would make him around 63 or 64 years old now.

Well, yes, there IS a Steve Hagenah from Bemidji on Facebook, and yes, he does look to be about the right age, and yes, he does have friends in law enforcement, including in the MBCA, so I immediately sent him a message sending him the link to my blog about the case and asking him if his office had or hadn’t received any of my information.

Mr. Hagenah’s Facebook page says there has not been any recent activity, however, so I wasn’t too surprised to get no answer. Maybe he is one of the few Facebook members who never ever check their messages. I sent a follow-up message a few days later, and again I received no answer.

My next step then, was to search on Google for Steven Hagenah of Bemidji, Minnesota. Again, I easily found that name matching that location. I also found definitely that the Steven Hagenah from Bemidji, Minnesota is retired from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and is now employed as an instructor in Law Enforcement at the Leech Lake Tribal College, and also in a Law Enforcement training program in Grand Forks, North Dakota. ***(note on 8-3-2018 -- Steve Hagenah is now deceased, the info in these links has changed, but were correct at the date first published)***

Mr. Hagenah’s email address is listed at Leech Lake Tribal College, too, and everything certainly seems current. I would guess, at least, that the Leech Lake Tribal College website keeps their contact information up-to-date.

So, I have sent Mr. Hagenah 3 emails, so far, that I assume have reached him, dated [Jan 14, Jan 27, and Jan 28]……… I would assume that any employee of a college must be required to check his email at least once in awhile – I know that I have to, here at the University in Thailand. However, as is par for the course in this case, evidently Mr. Hagenah chooses not to comment on the case, not to tell me I’ve got the wrong Mr. Hagenah, not to tell me yes, no, or any damned thing at all about whether the MBCA forensic investigators ever received my testimony on the case.

I even thought of emailing someone else there at the Tribal College to ask for confirmation of Mr. Hagenah’s current status of employment, but decided that would be unnecessary – and silly, besides. Surely if he wasn’t employed there anymore, they’d take his name down. So I’ve dropped the idea of contacting the college regarding any of this – for now, at least.

I have sent Mr. Hagenah one last email dated [Feb 12]…… to which I am attaching this text as a doc. file, for him to comment on, if he wishes. If I don’t get any answer from him by the beginning of next week, I will proceed to post this whole thing as a blog post which will be dated as it’s posted. Then I will decide how to proceed from there. 

Comments in red font from Lloyd Wagner on 2-18-15: I did finally receive an answer from Mr. Hagenah, which I would characterize as a "smoke screen". He refused to answer my questions, pretended to not understand why I'm interested in the case, and said I'm going "down a blind alley" because of "misinformation" which he will not detail. I will post the entire emails and further comments in my next post, coming soon, I hope.

I've also finally received an answer from the Department of Corrections as to the whereabouts of Joseph Couture, whom I considered writing to in prison regarding his obviously false confession to murder. Here, very briefly, is the very brief answer I received on that question, dated February 17.

"Couture is serving his sentence in another state. The location is not disclosed per DOC policy."

Below that non-answer was my original email requesting Couture's address, with his prisoner number (which is already right on the Internet under the DOC locator, and already posted as a screen shot on this blog post). However, I cannot seem to copy and paste my original message -- it just comes up blank when I try to "paste". Anyway, beneath my original request was the following official notice:

"This email is intended to be read only by the intended recipient. This email may be legally privileged or protected from disclosure by law. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination of this email or any attachments is strictly prohibited, and you should refrain from reading this email or examining any attachments. If you received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email and any attachments."

So, please all, forget that you read this (wink wink), and don't even imagine that there's a coverup here. I guess the Minnesota DOC has taken lessons from Pinochet's Chile now, and is "disappearing" its prisoners to undisclosed locations.They said earlier it was by "Couture's own request" to serve his sentence out of state, so I suppose that must be true, if they said so, eh? I'm sure Couture wouldn't want anybody asking him whether his "defense team" had informed him that ANOTHER person had been seen wearing size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes less than a week before the murder.

And then forbidding people to tell anybody else that it's their policy to not tell anybody where the prisoners are, either. Un-effing real. 

Well, the old News Tribune articles are posted below, if you'd like to read about a totally different Steven Hagenah than the one you will meet in the next post. In the articles below, (posted for educational purposes) it makes it sound as though Mr. Hagenah was/is as stubborn as a badger in his unrelenting quest for "evidence". Not so. Not so.

Thanks for reading. Please stay tuned.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE EVIDENCE - THE MINNESOTA BUREAU OF CRIMINAL APPREHENSION USES SCIENCE TO EXTRACT INFORMATION FROM UNLIKELY PLACES

--------------------------------------------------

Duluth News-Tribune (MN)-October 31, 2005

Readability: 10-12 grade level (Lexile: 1170L)

Author: Mark Stodghill/News Tribune Staff Writer

Steve Hagenah has worked two of the most high-profile missing person and murder cases that turned cold in Northland history -- the June 14, 2003, disappearance of 5-year-old Leanna Warner from Chisholm and the Sept. 3, 2000, murder of Trina Langenbrunner of Cloquet.

        Hagenah is the senior special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in Bemidji.

         If a body is found in rural northern Minnesota, it's likely that Hagenah and his team of forensic scientists will be called to assist the local police agency in the investigation.

        The 32-year BCA veteran is not a member of his agency's Cold Case unit based in St. Paul, but he knows how it operates and he personally knows how to work a case to exhaustion.

        Hagenah, 54, pointed to 23 notebooks stacked across filing cabinets in his office. Every one of them is devoted to the Leanna Warner case.

        ``I've gone through the entire Warner file three times from cover to cover, looking for something I overlooked or maybe didn't do,'' he said.

        Hagenah said seeking a useful piece of information sometimes can be like trying to pick a snowflake out of a blizzard.

        ``The most critical time in the life of a piece of evidence is that nanosecond before a police officer reaches down and picks it up,'' Hagenah said. ``If he does it right, it's useful. If he doesn't do it right, it's just an interesting piece of stuff that you found because it doesn't have any value as evidence.''

        The crime lab in Bemidji has four sections:

        Biology/DNA: This section allows forensic scientists to identify blood, semen, saliva and other body fluids. DNA testing allows the resident scientist to determine possible sources of the fluids.

        Evidence from cold cases sometimes yields tiny amounts of DNA that can be traced to a suspect. Before the late 1980s, DNA evidence was not commonly accepted in U.S. courts.

        Drug chemistry: Scientists in this section analyze and identify suspected controlled substances.

        Latent fingerprints: This section compares unknown latent prints -- those invisible to the naked eye -- with suspect prints. The information is entered into a fingerprint identification network that can be accessed by other law enforcement agencies.

        Ever-evolving techniques for revealing hidden fingerprints offer hope of uncovering new evidence in cold cases.

       Firearms and tool marks: Examines whether a questioned bullet or cartridge case was fired from a suspect firearm. The section also maintains a database to use firearms evidence to link crime scenes.

         A recovered firearm can be test-fired, the cartridge and projectile recovered and compared on the computerized worldwide Integrated Ballistics Identification System.

        Nat Pearlson, a forensic scientist specializing in firearms and tool-mark examinations and comparison, explained the value of the system.

        ``If somebody in Cass Lake brings in cartridges from a drive-by shooting and, say, Duluth has a drive-by and police find a gun, I can test-fire the gun and enter the image (of the cartridges) in the system and it can be seen if the cases are related. It's a pretty good investigative tool to link up cases that you didn't know were related to each other.''

        But as Hagenah points out, you don't always have to be a scientist to solve a crime.

        ``I had one guy convinced that we had a spy satellite hovering over him at the time of the crime and we were waiting for NASA to enhance the photo so we could ID him,'' Hagenah said. ``I told him it would really be better if he told me what he did and he told me. He said, `Wow. You guys are amazing.' ''

        Murder cases are never closed. Investigators are always trying to breathe life into a cold murder case, Hagenah said.

        Langenbrunner's stabbed body was discovered off a rural road in southern St. Louis County. The 33-year-old was the mother of three.

        ``Based on circumstances, I think it's highly likely it was a stranger or somebody who interacted with Trina just in that moment,'' Hagenah said. ``That makes it difficult. We spent thousands of man-hours over there working that. It has the air of solvability to it, but we're missing some key elements: witnesses or biological evidence that would be useful to us.''

        A $100,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Langenbrunner's killer. A $25,000 reward has been offered for the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Leanna Warner's disappearance.

        Rewards seldom solve cases, Hagenah said. If the reward is appealing enough, some people will make up information. Some will call police with a list of suspects and if one of their suspects is convicted they will call and ask for the reward.

        ``Every once in a while a reward will pry loose some helpful information, but it's pretty rare,'' he said. ``The reality is that most folks step up to the plate if they have information way before a reward is offered.''

        Hagenah is not a fan of television shows like CSI. He thinks most of the shows that depict forensic science cases are ``schlocky.'' He said there's a nugget of truth to what they do.

        ``They don't follow many of the rules that we have to follow,'' he said. ``The state doesn't give us Humvees to go out to crime scenes.

        ``What I find fascinating is crime-scene investigators will have these extremely candid conversations in front of witnesses and the two investigators will look at each other and make some significant hypotheses about the crime. It makes for good TV. It just makes for horrible crime-scene work.''

MARK STODGHILL reports on legal affairs and public safety. He can be reached weekdays at (218) 723-5333 or by e-mail at mstodghill@duluthnews.com.

     

        PHOTOS: Clint Austin/News Tribune and mug of Steve Hagenah, Trina

        Langenbrunner, Leanna Warner

         1. Forensic scientist Nat Pearlson, a crime scene coordinator, demonstrates the use of a comparison microscope to compare spent shell casings from a firearm at the Bemidji office of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

           2. A microscope used to compare spent shell casings to a specific firearm reveals on this split screen that they are a match, with identical markings.

        Edition: FINALSection: FRONTPage: 01A

Dateline: BEMIDJIRecord Number: 0510310058Copyright (c) 2005 Duluth News-Tribune

http://docs.newsbank.com/s/InfoWeb/aggdocs/NewsBank/10DA6F9326AAF4D0/0E436212A0DBFC8A?p_multi=DNTB&s_lang=en-US

Arrest made in 2000 killing of Cloquet woman - A convicted sex offender from Cloquet has been arrested for a murder 12 years ago considered one of the most high-profile cold cases in the Northland, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s office said late Friday night.

--------------------------------------------------

Duluth News Tribune (MN)-June 16, 2012

Readability: 9-12 grade level (Lexile: 1130L)

Author: Mike Creger, Duluth News Tribune

         A convicted sex offender from Cloquet has been arrested for a murder 12 years ago considered one of the most high-profile cold cases in the Northland, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s office said late Friday night.

        Joseph John Couture was arrested in the Sept. 3, 2000, stabbing death of Trina Langenbrunner of Cloquet. Her body was discovered off a rural road in southern St. Louis County. The 33-year-old was the mother of three.

        Couture, 41, is a Level 3 sex offender and is being held in St. Louis County Jail on charges of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal sexual conduct, authorities said.

        Couture was arrested in 1993 on felony burglary charges and faced various misdemeanor charges before a conviction for second-degree sexual conduct in 2006. He had been charged with 11 counts of first-degree sexual conduct with a person younger than 13 before pleading to the final charge.

        The sheriff’s office provided no other information on Friday afternoon’s arrest.

        Steve Hagenah, a retired senior special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in Bemidji, worked for years on the case and was thrilled to hear about an arrest Friday night.

        “I know some people who busted their chops on that case,” he said. “It just goes to show that you never give up.”

        He said that while many of the people who worked on the case early on are now retired, investigators wear a cold case “like an albatross around your neck,” he said.

        “You never stop thinking about it.”

        In a 2005 interview, Hagenah talked about how difficult cold cases can be to close.

        “Based on circumstances, I think it’s highly likely it was a stranger or somebody who interacted with Trina just in that moment,” Hagenah said at the time. “That makes it difficult. We spent thousands of man-hours over there working that. It has the air of solvability to it, but we’re missing some key elements: witnesses or biological evidence that would be useful to us.”

        There was a $100,000 reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Langenbrunner’s killer.

        Langenbrunner’s family asked for privacy Friday night after receiving news of the arrest.

        Authorities said Langenbrunner was hitchhiking to Grand Rapids to see her estranged husband the night of her death. Sex or robbery was believed to be the killer’s initial motivation.

         Trina Langenbrunner

          Joseph John Couture

        Section: News

Record Number: 7bbd26babd74dc0599ef8f659ad55c2623fbdceCopyright (c) 2012 Duluth News Tribune

http://docs.newsbank.com/s/InfoWeb/aggdocs/NewsBank/13F71DEA0E325A88/0E436212A0DBFC8A?p_multi=DNTB&s_lang=en-US

 

A Short Post (for once)

Just to relate that I've already pretty much written the next post -- but I'm waiting to give the main subject of that post one more chance to respond to a couple very simple questions before I publish it. 
The subject is the former "senior special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension" who was listed in a newspaper article as a forensic investigator on the case.
About all I asked him was, if or if not his office had received my info regarding the case, and if the forensic evidence they had gathered did or did not match Joseph Couture who was convicted of the murder.
It's just weird that he won't answer.
I suppose there is a tiny chance that this person has not yet read the emails I've sent him, but I would certainly think he MUST have read them -- as he is listed as an instructor in Law Enforcement at a tribal college in Minnesota, is listed with an email address at that college, and I've repeatedly written him for over a month, now.
Anyway, I've sent him a draft copy of the next post to give him another chance to comment before I post it, which I will within a few days.
More news, also: I've received the address of Sandra Couture, and will be writing to her to see what I can find out there. I'm hoping to get the address of Joseph Couture very soon, as well.  As I have to write them through "snail mail" from Thailand and then wait for a response, I don't expect to have much to report there for quite some time. 
Anyway, I'm really curious to hear if the Public Defender's office ever did mention to them that there's a witness who saw size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes on Tom Hinze the week of the murder, and all the rest of the stuff I've written about in all the previous posts.
I'm betting they were never told any of it. I'm just itching to hear the stories of how they were induced to "confess", especially to that ridiculous "arson fire" I discuss in this post and this one. The fire that supposedly happened in Carlton County, but was never reported anywhere until after St. Louis County had already "solved" it by cracking a jail-house code. ("Fishing" meant they were going to burn the house.)
Thanks for reading! 

About Thomas Hinze (AKA Tom Terrific)

Just a brief account of a few things I know or have heard about Tom Hinze that I haven't already mentioned on this blog.

I met him in late 1997. I had a car parked down on the end of the driveway of my place on the Birch Point Road in Twig with a "For Sale" sign on it, and Tom wanted to buy it to fix up a little and resell.

I'd never met him before, though he told me he'd been living down at his parents' place for some time.

I soon learned that he drank a lot, that his dad, Gerald Hinze, had been the Sheriff of Red Lake County, Minnesota, that Tom got along better with his mother than with his dad, and that Tom was a very friendly, often helpful, and usually jocular guy -- except at certain times when he'd had too much to drink -- then he could "flip" without warning and turn kind of weird, including starting fights, beating people up, and getting beat up himself. But I didn't see that right away.

I believe it was during the winter of 1998 - 1999 that Tom got me a small job to haul some stuff out of an apartment building he was living in, in downtown Duluth. The apartments were behind and above the Twins Bar, which were owned by a guy named Charlie Lemon. At the time, the bar was known as a hangout for certain Duluth policemen, as it is very near the Duluth Police Station.

The apartments in the upstairs were being remodeled, and there were some old carpets, metal closet doors, and miscellaneous stuff that Tom said he figured I could perhaps use on my farm -- and Tom said that the owner would rather pay me and see the stuff get used, than to pay (probably more) to get the stuff hauled to the dump.

I agreed to haul the stuff, and made 2 or 3 trips down there and back, during the coldest part of the winter. Then Tom gave me a call and asked if I could come down there to pick up my pay. 

While I was down there, Tom let me know that it was he himself who had thought that Charlie Lemon wanted me to haul the stuff out of there rather than to haul it to the dump -- and that it really wasn't Charlie's idea at all. 

In fact, Charlie had balked at paying me, so Tom told me nonchalantly that Charlie had only agreed to pay me after Tom had threatened to kill him if he didn't pay me. That sounded kind of overboard to me, and I figured Tom was exaggerating. Anyway, I got paid. I never have met Charlie Lemon, though I believe he still owns the building down there. He may know some things about Tom that I don't know.

I've already mentioned how Tom dressed in black, nearly always drove a black vehicle, and lived in a black trailer at his parents' place. The black Chrysler mini-van he drove the week before the murder was a pale yellow color when he first bought it, but he had it painted black almost immediately. That van wasn't in Tom's name, I know that for sure -- he'd bought it from the owner of Twig Meats, who's name I can't remember offhand -- and the former owner of the van was angry that Tom was stalling on transferring the title.

Tom had parked his trailer at my place during the summer of 2000, as his dad had died. Tom could always be friendly and helpful, and he offered to let my daughter stay in the trailer for the summer to save her paying rent somewhere else. Tom had moved into his mother's house, after his dad died. My daughter moved to an apartment in town the end of August 2000, and Tom asked if I'd mind if he stayed there himself for a "couple of weeks", until he could get things "wrapped up", and then he was going to head "out west to look for work". That was just before the Trina Langenbrunner murder, and that's all been related in previous posts.

A few other things Tom told me about himself -- he'd been a problem child for his dad, the Sheriff, and his dad had "sent him up", to Bethany in Duluth, as a juvenile delinquent, back in the 1960s. Tom told me he'd given a cop a chase up in Northwestern Minnesota, and had successfully outrun the cop. The problem was, Tom told me with a grin, the cop was his dad, and his dad knew he was chasing his own family car. 

Tom also told me that he'd been an iron worker. He told me that he didn't like to have his picture taken, and he actually intercepted a batch of pictures in which there was a picture of him that I'd taken without realizing he didn't like his picture taken. He found the picture of himself out of the others, and he burned it. He didn't want me to keep a copy of his tax return, either, though actually I was required to keep a copy, as I had done his taxes for him as a paid preparer.

Another time he told me that he could not own a gun, because he himself was afraid of what he might do with a gun while drinking. He told me that he had been "out west" in some state, and had gotten drunk and shot out some street lights. But he told me that he "didn't have any felonies", and he repeated that more than once to me.  He'd kind of brag about the amount of DWIs he'd had, and then laugh and say again as if he wanted to emphasize the point, "But I don't have any felonies, Lloyd."

Tom told me that he never put a car in his own name, but used the name of a certain Rodney from out in North Dakota, who was in prison (for meth, I believe), and couldn't object to his name being used on car registrations.

Tom told me he had owned a black house in Red Lake Falls, but that the chimney was painted all the colors of the rainbow. 

He compared women to animals, and was always talking about "Indian girls", especially. He told of getting a prostitute into his room in Duluth one time, getting her to undress, then kicking her out into the hall, with no clothes on. He talked about having "flushed a girl's head down a toilet". This was all while he was drunk, which he so often was.
Not long after the murder of Trina Langenbrunner, but before I realized that the Sheriff's Department was (or was not, depending on the day of the week) looking for someone who had size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes, Tom sent me a note scribbled in pencil on a napkin through the mail. The envelope had a North Dakota postmark, and it said something like "I picked up a hitchhiker, I wanted to lick her pussy, but she said she had children and didn't have any time. I felt real bad."
I thought that note might mean something, and brought it to the Sheriff's office when I went down there the fall of 2001. Both Ross Litman and Sally Burns scoffed and wouldn't even keep the note, though I tried to give it to them. It has since been lost.
Another thing Tom told me that I didn't give any significance to until later is that he "liked to eat cheese, so he always carried a knife on the dash of whatever vehicle he was driving, so he could slice off a chunk."

A few things that other people told me about Tom: Tom DID have at least one felony, as "out west", he'd shot into a car with people in it. I heard from several women who'd met him that they didn't like being around him, as he had a "strange look in his eyes", and seemed to be "eyeing them up".

None of which proves anything, I guess. Just that I don't think it would have been a bad idea for Sheriff Litman's Department to have run a DNA test on him.

After I sold my house in Minnesota in 2004 and came to Southeast Asia, I have many times looked for "Thomas Hinze" with various other words, on Google, to see if I could find out what he was doing. I never could find anything, in any state or locality, except in Twig, in 2003. My former neighbors told me they were sure he was dead, as he was already in such bad health from having drunk so heavily for so many years.

However, about in November of 2013 I thought I would do another search, and this time, I did a search for "images" of Tom Hinze. That's where I came up with the picture of him I've been using in this blog -- and indeed, it seems it must be the only picture in existence of him, as it's the picture his family used in his obituary.

Anyway, here's a link to Tom's obituary, that I finally ran across just a month or so after his death in October 2013. He HAD been in Minnesota all along, he died at a nursing home in Red Lake Falls -- and he certainly COULD have been DNA-tested to prove his innocence, if he was indeed innocent. However, as far as I know, he's still not been DNA-tested, and as I've said over and over again, Joseph Couture was convicted without any DNA evidence being presented to a jury.

Notice that not much is said about Tom in the obituary -- here's the entire text from the "Life Legacy" section of the obituary -- the rest of the sections are all blank, except for a couple of names in the guestbook: 

Thomas John Hinze was born on December 27, 1952 in Minneapolis, MN the son of Gerald Theodore and Betty Ann (Peterson) Hinze. The family moved to Red Lake Falls, MN in 1956 and Tom graduated from Lafayette High School in 1970.

He was an iron worker for several years, traveled the country and loved cars.

Survivors include his mother, Betty Ann Hinze; sisters, Diane “Pinky” Bakken and Donna Whitcomb; one nephew, Lars G. Bakken Jr.; and many friends.

Thomas Hinze, age 60 died peacefully on Sunday, October 06, 2013 at Hillcrest Senior Living in Red Lake Falls, MN.

Well, that's the end of this post. I may come back and make corrections or additions within the next day or so, but will post it right away, as I'm not on my own computer today. 

I have recently sent a couple of emails to the person who was head of the forensic analysis section of the MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in the case. I'm still giving that person a little more time to investigate and respond (if he wants to), before I continue commenting in a subsequent post.

Thanks for staying tuned.