‘Everyone is a suspect’ after 4 people were found by gunshot in Wisconsin cornfield

MENOMONIE, Wisconsin – Four people found killed in an abandoned SUV in a cornfield in western Wisconsin had been shot and were all from Minnesota, authorities said on Tuesday in a case they called a mystery .

Preliminary results of autopsies carried out on Monday by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office showed that the two men and two women all died of gunshot wounds, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Office said.

The victims were identified as Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26, Loyace Foremann III, 35, and Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, all from Saint-Paul; as well as Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, of Stillwater.

Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd told a press conference on Tuesday that authorities do not believe the person or persons responsible for the killings are local or in the region. He said investigators have no motive.

“That one is a mystery,” he said.

Authorities believe the four residents of the Twin Cities area died within 24 hours of their discovery and that the location “was a place where these victims were taken at random,” Bygd said.

“Everyone is suspect at this point,” he said. “We are looking at everyone and all the possibilities. “

Plug-Presley’s father, Damone Presley Sr., told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that the four victims were in a St. Paul bar on Saturday night and got into someone’s vehicle when they left.

“Why would this happen? He said on Tuesday. “… It just doesn’t make sense. “

A 911 caller alerted MPs on Sunday to the black SUV that was on a rural road in the town of Sheridan, according to the Dunn County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff officials said earlier that there may have been a second dark-colored SUV traveling with the vehicle that was ditched.

The Wisconsin Criminal Investigation Division and the Wisconsin State Patrol are participating in the investigation.