FERGUS FALLS, Minn. – As an Indian migrant family struggled to cross the border during a brutally cold blizzard, they made desperate phone calls to the alleged smuggler who had arranged their passage from Canada.

The migrants told the alleged smuggler, Fenil Patel, that they couldn’t find the driver who was supposed to pick them up on the U.S. side of the border and that they were too cold in the early morning hours of January 19, 2022. As the weather dropped to minus 33 degrees with wind chill, they told Patel their children, ages 11 and 3, could not stand the weather and they did not have enough clothes to keep warm.

Patel told the migrants to come back to the Canadian side and that he would pick them up or send someone for them, concerned that they would get arrested on American soil where they didn’t have a visa. But no one came, and the migrants were found frozen to death hours later.

That was the testimony of cooperating witness and convicted West Coast smuggler Rajinder Pal Singh in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, as prosecutors laid out their case against two other men they say were involved in the enterprise, Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand. One major question: just who is legally responsible, and to what extent, for the deaths of Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife Vaishaliben, 37; and their children, Vihangi, 11; and Dharmik, 3?

Patel is a common name in the western Indian state of Gujarat and the victims and alleged smugglers – all from that region — are not related.

Gujarati police charged Fenil Patel in connection with the deaths of the Patel family in January 2023. An investigation by Canadian media outlet CBC News in January 2024 found that Fenil Patel has been openly living in a suburb of Toronto. He faces no charges in the U.S.

In Minnesota, prosecutors called Singh to testify about the larger smuggling operation that spurred the fatal journey of Jagdish Patel’s family. Singh, from the Indian state of Punjab, illegally entered the U.S. at least three times, serving prison twice for fraud and returning without legal permission after being repeatedly deported.

He pleaded guilty in Seattle in February 2023 to transporting and harboring certain aliens for profit and conspiracy to commit money laundering, admitting that he received more than $500,000 as a key member of a smuggling ring that brought hundreds of Indians across the Canadian border to Washington state. Singh, who said he smuggled more than 500 people into America over the years, was not charged in connection with the Patel family’s deaths and testified that he only handled border crossings from British Columbia.

Kyle Steven Williams was convicted Tuesday in the 2021 murder of Kelly Jo Marie Kocurek, a 36-year-old mother of two, who was found bloodied and bruised in a Hastings hotel.

Following a five-day trial, a Dakota County jury convicted Williams, 35, of Red Wing, of first-degree murder while committing domestic abuse, premeditated first-degree murder, intentional second-degree murder and first-degree assault.

A conviction of premeditated first-degree murder comes with a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. The jury deliberated for less than a day before reaching a verdict, according to a news release from the Dakota County Attorney’s Office.

“Today justice was rightly served as Mr. Williams will now be held accountable for his continued acts of domestic abuse that culminated in the violent murder of Kelly,” Dakota County Attorney Kathryn Keena said in a statement. “While no outcome can ever fully heal the wounds of this heartbreaking incident, I hope today’s verdict brings some peace and comfort to Kelly’s family and loved ones.”

On May 18, 2021, Kocurek was found unresponsive by Hastings police officers in a room of a local hotel. She had marks around her neck and a number of cords were lying next to her. Her face was bruised. She was hospitalized but died from her injuries five days later.

Williams told police that Kocurek tried to strangle herself and he tried to cut the cords from around her neck, according to the attorney’s office. But the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Kocurek was strangled in a homicide and had also suffered traumatic injuries to her head.

A man on a scooter has grabbed or tried to grab at least five females on a St. Louis Park trail over a span of several weeks this fall, officials said Tuesday.

Reports to police say the incidents tied to a suspect in his late teens or early 20s have occurred on the North Cedar Lake Regional Trail in St. Louis Park and Minneapolis between Oct. 9 and Nov. 12.

“At least five females have reported incidents where the suspect has approached on an electric scooter and either attempted to or successfully grabbed them over their clothing,” a statement from police read.

Incidents have taken place between the trail’s Dakota Park and Cedar Lake areas, police said.

The physical description offered by police was too broad to help the public possibly identify the suspect.

Anyone who has also been similarly targeted or has information about a possible suspect is urged to call the police tip line at 952-924-2165, or email info@stlouisparkmn.gov and include your contact information.