Star Tribune
Officials ID woman found dead 23 years ago in New Brighton cold case
The New Brighton Department of Public Safety says it has finally identified a Minneapolis woman whose body was found 23 years ago in Long Lake Regional Park.
Gail Marlene Johnson was 40 at the time she died, the department said in a news release Friday. The case has remained cold for years with authorities unable to match DNA from her remains with any known missing people.
“Identifying her provides an important new clue as we continue our work to determine the circumstances of her death,” said Tony Paetznick, New Brighton’s public safety director, in a news release.
On Sept. 15, 2000, two teenagers found Johnson’s body while walking in a wooded and marshy area of Long Lake Regional Park, the release stated. Investigators believe her body had been there up to two months. The state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension obtained DNA from the remains but did not come up with any matches in its database.
Despite what the New Brighton agency called “exhaustive investigative efforts,” the case remained cold for years. This summer, investigators worked with Astrea Forensics to determine a DNA profile for the body that could be used to search for possible family connections. The DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit organization, used that profile to find what the release called “a likely genetic connection to Johnson’s family.”
Her DNA was then matched with a sample provided by a family member.
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office never determined the cause or manner of death due to the state of the remains. However, investigators consider the death “suspicious,” the release said. A call to the department seeking comment was not returned Friday.
Johnson had been a sex worker, and was known to spend time along Lake Street in Minneapolis, according to the release. She was 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighed 135 pounds, and had light brown hair. She drove a black or gray 1989 Ford Mustang, and her last known interaction with law enforcement was July 11, 2000.
The release did not address whether Johnson was ever reported missing.
The department asked anyone who had contact with Johnson to let investigators know by phone at 651-288-4141, email gail@newbrightonmn.gov, or online at newbrightonmn.gov/gail.
Star Tribune
Prosecutors file sealed brief detailing allegations against Trump in election interference case
In their new indictment, Smith’s team ditched certain allegations related to Trump’s interactions with the Justice Department but left the bulk of the case intact, arguing that the remaining acts — including Trump’s hectoring of his vice president, Mike Pence, to refuse to certify the counting of electoral votes — do not deserve immunity protections.
Chutkan is now responsible for deciding which acts in the indictment, including allegations that Trump participated in a scheme to enlist fake electors in battleground states he lost, are official acts and therefore immune from prosecution and which are private acts.
She has acknowledged that her decisions are likely to be subject to additional appeals to the Supreme Court.
“I honestly think he used to understand how tariffs work,” Cuban said. “Back in the 90s and early 2000s, he was a little bit coherent when he talked about trade policy and he actually made a little bit of sense. But I don’t know what happened to him.”
Speaking in Pittsburgh on Thursday, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance, pushed back against the Harris campaign’s claims that tariffs would hurt the economy. Vance described the tariffs as a way of discouraging imports and boosting American manufacturing.
“If you are a business, and you rely on foreign slave labor at $3 a day, the only way to rebuild American manufacturing is to say, if you want to bring that product made by slave labor back into the United States of America, you’re going to pay a big fat tariff before you get it back into our country,” Vance said.
Back in Wisconsin, Amara Marshell, freshman at UW-La Crosse, said she showed up to support Harris because she is concerned about what a second Trump presidency could mean for reproductive rights. Like her friend, sophomore Avery Black, Marshell is also excited about the possibility of electing the nation’s first female president.
“Women deserve to have power over their own bodies,” Marshell said. “We shouldn’t have to not be able to get an abortion just because of a president.”
Mary Holman, an 80-year-old retiree from Fort Atkinson, Wis., said she hasn’t been to a rally since former President Barack Obama’s first campaign in 2008. But Holman said she decided to get off the sidelines this cycle because she views the election as a fight to preserve democracy.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will auction off state lands in popular northern counties next month.
The public land — in Aitkin, Cook, Itasca, and St. Louis counties — will go up for sale during the Department of Natural Resource’s annual online public land sale from Nov. 7 to 21.
“These rural and lakeshore properties may appeal to adjacent landowners or offer recreational opportunities such as space for a small cabin or camping,” the DNR said in a statement.
Properties will be available for bidding Nov. 7 through Nov. 21.
This all can trim for print: The properties include:
40 acres in Aitkin County, with a minimum bid of $85,000
44 acres in Cook County, minimum bid $138,000
1.9 acres in Itasca County, minimum bid $114,000
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Tests underway to ensure accurate ballot count in Minnesota
Prosecutors file sealed brief detailing allegations against Trump in election interference case
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