DYR: The Mimbach murders 2000

From the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune:

Before family was slain, Lino Lakes woman called police

Jim Adams | Star Tribune
Wednesday, October 25, 2000

Donna Mimbach called Lino Lakes police for help the night before she and her family were killed, but she was unwilling to evict her brother so police could arrest him if he didn’t leave, police said Tuesday.

Her brother, Larry S. Dame, was charged Tuesday with five counts of second-degree murder in the gruesome beating deaths last week of Mimbach, her husband and their three children in their Lino Lakes home. Dame, 28, also was charged with taking the Mimbach station wagon without permission.

The officer who returned Mimbach’s call last Wednesday night also offered to take Dame into custody if he threatened the family or made suicidal statements, but Mimbach said he hadn’t, said Lino Lakes Police Chief Dave Pecchia.

“We did everything legally possible to assist Donna Mimbach on the night of Oct. 18,” Pecchia said.

Dame’s bail was set at $3million by Anoka County District Judge Stephen Askew. He approved a request by Dame’s attorney, David Powers, to hire a psychiatrist to evaluate whether Dame is mentally competent to stand trial. Dame stood silently in court, his eyes downcast.

He is accused of killing Mimbach, 29, her husband, Todd Mimbach, 32, and their children, 12-year-old John Mimbach, 9-year-old Amber Duval and 22-month-old Daniel Mimbach. Police found their bodies in their beds under their covers about 1 p.m. Thursday.

Anoka County authorities probably will wait for a psychiatric evaluation before deciding whether to call a grand jury to consider first-degree murder charges, which require suspicion of premeditation, said Assistant County Attorney Tony Palumbo.

No motive revealed Lead investigator Tony Helgesen of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office said Dame
gave police no reason for his acts.  “It was a horrific crime,” Helgesen said. “Any time you have a crime scene
involving children, it is very difficult.”

According to the criminal complaint, Dame beat the Mimbachs with a hammer and stabbed all but his sister with a kitchen knife early Thursday as they were sleeping. Then he drove the Mimbachs’ station wagon to Rockford, Ill. He told detectives that he put the hammer, the knife and his bloody clothing in a bag and put it in a garbage bin near his hotel in Rockford, the complaint says. Rockford police found the bag with the bloody items in the bin.

Dame returned to Minnesota and was arrested about 5 p.m. Saturday after a man spotted him in the parking lot of an Anoka video store and alerted police. Helgesen said Dame gave no reason for why he went to Rockford or returned to Minnesota. Dame told police that the slayings were early Thursday but didn’t say whether he was drinking, Helgesen said.  He said Dame was calm, lucid and didn’t show remorse during a police interview.

The crime scene showed no sign of a struggle, Helgesen added.  Dame had been released from prison in February after serving four years for first-degree assault for slashing a man’s throat in 1995 in Morrison County.

While he was in prison, Dame’s sister and her husband visited him and bought him a television set, said Nicole Daley, who said she had known Dame and Donna Mimbach since she was in second grade with Dame.  Donna Mimbach loved her brother, Daley said. She said that she was the maid of honor at Donna Mimbach’s wedding and that she wrote and called Dame several times a month while he was in prison. Daley said she worried about him when she saw him a month ago, because he was aloof and quiet. “In prison, he was positive and had big expectations about how life was going to be when he got out,” she said. After his release it was hard to find work, but he finally got a factory job. “He saved his money up and bought a car, and it broke down the next day,” she said. “He was frustrated.”

After his release, Dame lived with his parents in Lino Lakes until he moved into a Circle Pines apartment in early August, family members said. They said he had struggled with alcohol since high school and had recently talked about
hearing voices.

His brother, Walter Dame, 23, said Larry Dame said he drank to quiet the voices. The voices told Larry Dame that his family was out to kill him because they were trying to commit him to a mental hospital, his brother said.

Dame had been jailed for a week this month after taking one of the Mimbachs’ cars. He was released last Wednesday. Todd and Donna Mimbach picked him up at the jail late that afternoon. After taking his wife home, Todd Mimbach took Dame to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids.  The Mimbachs believed that a mental-health evaluation required by Dame’s probation officer would lead to Dame being admitted to the hospital.  But he wasn’t, and Todd Mimbach drove Dame back to the Mimbach home in the 500 block of Chippewa Trail. ‘I can’t have him stay here’

At 9:26 p.m. Wednesday, Donna Mimbach called 911 for help: “Um, it’s regarding, OK my brother got discharged from the um jail today and the consequences were that he was supposed to go to the hospital because he hears voices and he stole my car and all this stuff.  “My husband brought him to the hospital and the hospital will not take him, and so my husband is bringing him back here because we can’t get ahold of his parole officer. Well, I can’t have him stay here. He has to go back to jail or something.”

A few minutes later, a Lino Lakes police officer returned Donna Mimbach’s call. Officials didn’t release those transcripts, but Helgesen said the officer offered Donna Mimbach several options under which police could arrest her
brother. When none worked for her, the officer told her to call back if anything changed, Pecchia said.

Donna Mimbach’s brother Walter was at the house until about 10 p.m. and said the family had decided to let Larry Dame spend the night, the complaint said. Todd Mimbach intended to take Larry Dame to work with him the next day,
Helgesen said.

Relatives came by the house at 9 a.m. and again at noon, and could tell that the TV and lights were on, the complaint said. Nobody went to the door. Police were called about 12:50 p.m. and found the bodies.
Larry Dame’s next court hearing is Dec. 21.
Jim Adams can be contacted at @startribune.com

This info is from the court files.

The dead bodies of Todd and Donna Mimbach, along with their three children ranging in ages from one through twelve, were discovered in their Lino Lakes, Minnesota home on October 19, 2000. The entire family [Donna Mimbach, 29; Todd Mimbach, 32; children, Daniel Mimbach, 22 months; Amber Duval, 9, and John Mimbach, 12] had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer, and with the exception of Donna Mimbach, the victims’ throats had been slit with a knife. Defendant, Donna Mimach’s brother Lawrence Scott Dame, who had reportedly stayed over at the house on the night of the murders, became the prime suspect of the Anoka County Sheriffs Department investigation of the case.

On October 21, 2000, a citizen of Anoka, Minnesota, spotted Lawrence Scott Dame driving Todd Mimbach’s car in Coon Rapids, Minnesota and promptly contacted the police. The police arrived shortly thereafter and arrested Defendant at approximately 4:50 P.M. the same day without incident. Defendant was immediately taken to the Anoka County Sheriff’s Department. The police later discovered ten empty beer cans and a bottle of vodka in the back seat of Todd Mimbach’s vehicle. Investigator Helgesen (hereinafter “Helgesen”), the lead investigator assigned to the case, arrived at the station approximately half an hour later and began interviewing Defendant around 5:37 P.M. Helgesen began the interview by informing Defendant of his Miranda rights. Defendant indicated that he understood his rights, and after several long pauses, he informed Helgesen that “he couldn’t say anything right now.” Helgeson immediately terminated the interview and left the room. While Helgesen was absent from the room, the videotape shows Defendant speaking and mumbling to himself in an apparent struggle to decide whether to tell Helgesen about the murders. Approximately five minutes later, Defendant requested to see Helgeson again, and Helgeson returned to the interview room.

After ordering some food at Defendant’s request, Helgeson re-read Defendant his Miranda rights, at which point Defendant interrupted him and began reciting his rights by memory. Helgesen then re-read the rights
individually, and after each one, Defendant said that he understood. Helgesen then asked if Defendant would talk to him. Without directly answering Helgesen’s question, Defendant chose to continue speaking.

Throughout the interview, Defendant repeatedly indicated that he understood his rights and what was happening. Helsgesen testified that while he could smell alcohol on Defendant’s breath, Defendant did not display any of the traditional indicia of intoxication such as staggering, slurred speech, memory loss, or blood-shot eyes. Following the two Miranda warnings, he told Helgesen on at least two other occasions during the interview that he understood his rights. At one point, after a particularly long period of silence by Defendant, Helgesen again asked Defendant if he would let him ask some questions, and Defendant responded that he would try to answer them. At no time did he ever choose to reinvoke his right to remain silent or to request an attorney.

During the interview, Defendant confessed to killing the entire Mimbach family by bludgeoning them to death with a hammer, and with the exception of his sister Donna, cutting their throats with a knife. He told Helgesen that he then cleaned up the laundry room, put the weapons and clothing in a bag, and took
Todd Mimbach’s vehicle to Rockford, Illinois, where he threw the weapons and clothing into a garbage dumpster near a motel. He described the location of the dumpsters and even drew Helgesen a diagram of its location. He said that he returned to Minnesota on October 21, 2001. The interview concluded at 8:03 P.M.

Shortly after the interrogation, Defendant was transported to Mercy Hospital to have his blood tested for alcohol or drugs.’ The blood test revealed that Defendant had a blood alcohol content (hereinafter “BAC”) of .10 and no presence of drugs.

• Dame had extensive experience with the criminal justice system prior to his arrest for the murders,
including a 1991 conviction for first-degree criminal damage to property and a 1996 conviction for first-degree assault.

Dame was sentenced to life in prison 3 June 2002

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