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Man sentenced to 20 years in 1984 cold case Minneapolis murder
Matthew Brown admitted to following a woman from the bar to her apartment the morning of July 19, 1984, and then stabbing Robert Miller when he tried to step in.
MINNEAPOLIS — A former Minnesota state prison security counselor will himself serve a 20-year sentence behind bars after admitting his guilt in a murder that went unsolved for decades.
Matthew Brown was in a Hennepin County Courtroom Monday, just over 40 years after the fatal stabbing of Robert Miller inside his south Minneapolis apartment. The prosecution and defense agreed to a 20-year sentence after Brown agreed to plead guilty, in part to spare his victim’s family the pain of having to sit through a trial.
Brown’s attorney read an allocation for the defendant, admitting that early the morning of July 19, 1984 he followed a woman home from the bar and then broke into the apartment she went into. The woman ran into the bathroom, and when the 32-year-old Miller jumped in to intervene, Brown brutally stabbed him to death.
Prosecutors said after the sentencing that 20 years “isn’t enough time,” but that the cold case had significant challenges – among them, many of the witnesses and investigators who contributed to the investigation are now dead.
KARE 11’s Lou Raguse spoke with the victim’s brother, Jim Miller, following the sentencing. Miller recalled sharing a bedroom with “Bobby” when the two were younger, and expressed gratitude that Robert got a chance to hold his youngest child on the Fourth of July that year, just weeks before the murder.
Jim Miller says while his brother’s violent death has haunted him for decades, he is doing his best to honor Robert by not holding on to hate, as “Bobby” would not have wanted that. Miller also noted that Brown – who eventually relocated to Moose Lake, where he worked at a prison for sexual offenders as a security counselor – rebuilt his life with a wife and children while living less than 30 minutes from Miller and his family. Miller added that he knows people who knew Brown and had no idea his brother’s killer was so close.
Miller added that the family is happy the case ended with a guilty plea so they didn’t have to sit through a trial, and told Raguse that they are not upset with prosecutors for the deal that was struck. He also thanked the police for refusing to give up on the case.
After growing cold over more than three decades, investigators got a breakthrough in the case in 2018 when advances in technology allowed the Minnesota BCA to develop a DNA profile built on blood recovered from the scene at 3209 Girard Ave. S. There were no hits in the nationwide system, but investigators soon consulted with a genealogist and determined that a Minnesota man named Matthew Russell Brown of Barnum was a potential suspect. They were able to collect a DNA sample from a plastic disposable cup Brown used in March of 2023, and the profile matched the blood collected at the murder scene.
Brown, who had relocated to Illinois, was extradited to Minnesota and charged with murder, burglary and assault in Robert Miller’s death.
Officials say 79-year-old Charles J. Finck of Elk River was piloting a single-engine Piper Cherokee when it went down near Wayne, Nebraska.
OMAHA, Neb. — Bad weather was reported near two Nebraska farm fields where small planes crashed minutes apart in August, according to preliminary reports from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The two crashes happened on Aug. 26, about 45 miles apart, and within 50 minutes of each other, the Omaha World-Herald reported Thursday. While the NTSB reports don’t yet cite a probable cause in either crash, both reports include witness accounts of low clouds and bad weather.
Joseph Rudloff, 73, of Norfolk, Nebraska, died when his single-engine plane, a two-seat RANS S19, crashed at 8:41 a.m. near the town of Crofton. At 9:31 a.m., a single-engine Piper Cherokee piloted by 79-year-old Charles J. Finck of Elk River, Minnesota, crashed near Wayne, Nebraska.
No one else was aboard either plane beyond the pilots.
Rudloff’s obituary described him as “an avid flier” who died after his plane was engulfed in thick fog. The NTSB report said that 11 minutes before the crash, he called a pilot friend saying he was over Yankton, South Dakota, but unable to land there because of poor weather. Yankton was seeing fog and light rain at the time.
Rudloff’s friend suggested he fly to an airport in Nebraska. Rudloff’s plane hit the ground near Crofton in the far northeastern corner of Nebraska.
That same morning, a landowner near Wayne heard an engine revving on a plane that turned out to be Finck’s. The landowner then heard a pop sound and saw a black plume of smoke coming from his cornfield. He told investigators that clouds were near the ground when he heard the plane fly by. Rain also was falling.
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Stillwater Correctional Facility on lockdown after staff exposed to an unidentified substance
Officials told KARE 11 that “several staff were taken to the hospital out of an abundance of caution.”
BAYPORT, Minn. — The Stillwater Correctional Facility was placed on temporary lockdown Thursday after staff members were exposed to an unidentified substance.
Minnesota Department of Corrections Director of Communications, Shannon Loehrke, told KARE 11 that “several staff were taken to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. The facility is on a temporary lockdown.”
The Minnesota Department of Corrections said an investigation is ongoing and they will provide more details as they become available.
No further information has been released.
Prosecutors charged 45-year-old Trevor Joseph Wunderlich with second-degree murder in the death of his 68-year-old mother, Charlene Gail Wunderlich.
HUGO, Minn. — The man who was the “person of interest” in the north metro search Monday night was charged Thursday morning in the murder of his mother.
Prosecutors charged 45-year-old Trevor Joseph Wunderlich with second-degree murder in the death of his 68-year-old mother, Charlene Gail Wunderlich.
According to court documents, Washington County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call from a home in the 15000 block of Ingersoll Ave. at approximately 5:55 p.m. on Sept. 16.
Dispatchers said they “could hear noises on the line consistent with an ongoing assault or struggle.”
When deputies arrived they found Charlene Gail Wunderlich on the kitchen floor severely injured, according to the criminal complaint. Deputies tried to “detain the defendant, but he ran into the basement of the home and fled out a rear door.”
Charlene Gail Wunderlich told the deputies that her son beat her before she lost consciousness. She was rushed to the hospital but died from her injuries.
Law enforcement agencies across the metro launched a manhunt for Wunderlich. Sheriff’s officials warned the public not to approach him as he was considered dangerous.
Just before 11 a.m. Tuesday, a resident in the 9800 block of 152nd St. N saw a man matching Wunderlich’s description in their trailer. KARE 11 spoke to the woman who owns the trailer, and she says her dogs were growling at the trailer, and when she opened the door Wunderlich was sleeping inside.
The woman said she screamed to her son who was working on the property to call 911. Her son had a brief conversation with Wunderlich and then Wunderlich ran down the road with no shoes to another property where, according to officials, police arrested him.
According to court documents, in 2021 Wunderlich was sentenced to 203 days in prison for violating a domestic abuse no-contact order. While serving that sentence, he was convicted of fourth-degree assault against a correctional officer.
