10 Years Later, Officials Are Still Investigating Small Town’s Only Unsolved Murder
April 16, 2017, 9:06 AM CST / Updated April 16, 2017, 9:06 AM CST
By Jane Herman NBCNews
The Rochester, Minnesota police force has an incredible track record of solving crimes, but there is one case that has weighed heavily on the community for a decade.
“It happened to someone who should have been in the prime of their lives,” Capt. John Sherwin told Dateline NBC. “She never got the chance to start her career or have a family.”
April Jean Sorensen, 27, was easy-going, athletic, and a hard-working student at the Rochester Community and Technical College, studying to become a dental hygienist.
Thinking about her sister’s untimely death still brings Holly Beenken to tears. “She was just not a person you would think would be targeted,” she told Dateline.
On April 17, 2007, April’s TV technician arrived at her home at 12:30 p.m., for a scheduled visit. He saw smoke coming from inside the house and immediately called 911.
When police and investigators arrived at the scene, they determined that the fire was not an accident.
After the fire was extinguished, police found April’s body inside her bedroom. Autopsy reports confirmed she had been stabbed and strangled to death.
Police believe that the killer set the fire to burn away the evidence of the crime.
Capt. John Sherwin, a patrol sergeant at the time, said investigators have retraced April’s steps, interviewed thousands of people and collected DNA samples in their attempts to solve this mystery.
Despite their efforts, the case still remains open.
On the night before her murder, April had worked the early-morning shift at UPS Inc. in Rochester from 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. Then she attended class from 10:00 a.m. to 10:50 a.m., leaving a less than two-hour window from when April returned home, to when she was killed and her house was set on fire.
April was living with her husband, Joshua, who worked for IBM. Investigators questioned Joshua right away.
During this type of investigation, “everyone is on your radar,” said Capt. Sherwin.
While they initially looked at Joshua as a possible suspect, police quickly cleared him, as he had an airtight alibi. IBM had a very secure corporate campus and he was at work during the time of the murder.
The TV technician was also ruled out as a suspect, because it was confirmed that he had just arrived to the scene based on his work schedule for that day.
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