Dan Neus murder 1996

On February 6, 1996, Daniel Neus, 29 was walking his dog when he was shot and killed on the 3300 block of Major Avenue North around 11:55 p.m. He was found dead in a yard with several gunshot wounds.

Five months earlier Loren Busse was biking home from work at a Red Lobster restaurant. He was on a side street off Highway 169 at 10:30 p.m. on August 30, 1995. Police say someone fired at least a half-dozen shots at Loren as he passed through the 1800 block of Mendelssohn Avenue. He fell from his bike and later died while being transported to an area hospital.

Ballistic tests determined that the same gun, a 40-caliber semiautomatic, was used in both shootings. More than 20 years later, the cases remain unsolved and besides the fact that the same gun was used on two Golden Valley men of a similar age, there has been nothing else found to link the murders, according to police reports.

To this day, both shootings appear totally random, and as a former police chief pointed out, “the vast majority of murders aren’t random.”

Related to Dan’s murder:
Loren Busse murder 1995

This is from the Golden Valley Police Department:

The phases of life flow one into the other with their own kind of momentum, a forward propulsion so full of potential it feels sometimes like it can never be stopped.

And so when it is, the life is celebrated for what it was, but dearly mourned for the future that it promised.

Dan Neus was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, in August 1966, write Ron and Jane Nues in a biography about their son. One year later he was joined by an adopted sister, Nancy. They grew up like twins. When Dan was 10, his brother Patrick was born. Margaret was born the next year.

Dan began playing basketball in grade school, and in eighth grade, his team took the city championship. In high school, he received an award from 3M for being an innovative thinker. He moved on to study engineering at the University of Minnesota, paying his tuition by working at the Minnesota Daily.

Using his knowledge of computers, Dan helped transition his family’s engraving business, Merit Badge, into the digital age. The company made a complete conversion to computerized engraving and increased output more than threefold.

Less than a year after graduating with a degree in business, Dan’s first jobs in computer applications allowed him to buy his own house in Golden Valley.

Dan was interested in everything, write the Nueses. Skydiving. Motorcycling. Sports. Computers. Entrepreneurship. And possibilities continued to present themselves.

For years Merit Badge had bought printing from Jiffy Print. When the owner retired, Dan saw an opportunity and put his programming skills to use. As he mastered the printing trade, his parents write, he found much joy in running Jiffy Print on Central Avenue

His next idea was to start his own software company. He drew up a plan and applied for a certificate of incorporation, ready to embark on the next phase of his life. That phase, however, would not come to pass.

The certificate of incorporation, dated February 7, 1996, arrived in the mail just days after Dan was murdered in Golden Valley by an unnamed shooter.

“The world lost a great man,” write Dan’s parents. “Nancy, Patrick, and Marge lost a great brother, and we sure lost a great son. He had so much to live for.”

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