Star Tribune
‘Significant’ facts point to Edina man in doctor’s hit-and-run death near Lake Mille Lacs
State investigators have seized an SUV and questioned the owner of the vehicle they suspect was involved in a hit-and-run crash that killed a longtime family doctor as she walked her dogs near Lake Mille Lacs last fall.
The seizure of the gray 2022 Tesla X is among several pieces of evidence detailed in a court document filed Tuesday afternoon that points to an Edina man as the person who hit 56-year-old Cathy Ann Donovan around sunset on Nov. 13 along northbound Hwy. 169, near the southern shore of Lake Mille Lacs.
Mille Lacs County Sheriff Kyle Burton said Wednesday that “the facts … are significant” as they are spelled out in a search warrant affidavit filed in court by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).
“I think for sure we’ve established probable cause” pointing to the 42-year-old man as the driver of the Tesla X, Burton told the Star Tribune. Probable cause is the legal term for what justifies charges being filed.
Charges against the man have yet to be filed. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged.
Among the evidence noted in the affidavit: the man’s cellphone was in the area about the time Donovan was hit, a windshield wiper was on the pavement near Donovan’s body, and the vehicle appears to be similar to one captured on separate surveillance video footage along that stretch of the highway around the time of the crash.
The affidavit cleared the way last week for the BCA to seize the SUV, the man’s phone and the Tesla’s card-shaped key.
Investigators have since collected hair off the SUV in three locations: the driver’s side mirror, underneath near a front tire and on the front passenger tire. A determination of the hair’s origin is pending completion of the BCA’s lab work. Also pending is the unearthing of data from the man’s cellphone and the Tesla’s computer in order to confirm the vehicle’s location and whether the driver was using the phone at the time of the crash.
The man acknowledged during questioning by state investigators on Jan. 9 that he was likely driving alone to his cabin in Cross Lake on the day Donovan was struck, but he denied hitting her and leaving the scene. One investigator looked at the Tesla in the man’s garage and saw no front-end damage, and the man said his vehicle has not had any body damage, nor has he made any insurance claims.
The man also said he would check his Tesla for any video that might have been saved from the day of the crash, “and will call if he does. [The man] did not call … back,” the court filing read.
One day after an investigator saw the Tesla, a BCA agent contacted a dealership and learned that any light front-end or windshield damage could be fixed within a few weeks. The agent also was told that Teslas “have [a] significantly higher ability to withstand body damage than other vehicles, and it is difficult to dent or do body damage to them,” the affidavit read.
Apart from spelling out the evidence the BCA has in hand so far, the affidavit also disclosed that two women told investigators they saw Donovan’s body on the hood of a smaller SUV heading north on the highway, with her head near the windshield. One of the women added that the vehicle she saw was consistent in appearance to the one in a surveillance image that investigators included in a news release about the crash.
A driver who came upon the scene moments after the crash said she swerved to avoid hitting Donovan in the road and fatally hit one of her dogs.
In mid-December, family members joined the State Patrol and the Sheriff’s Office to announce a $10,000 reward in hopes the money will lead to solving the case.
“I cannot get my head around how anybody can drive off and leave someone in the road to die,” read a statement from George Donovan, the doctor’s father, during a news conference publicizing the reward. “I know Cathy cannot be replaced, but knowing why might help.”
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.