Still elusive answers 7 years after the death of an NDSU student

Greg Bearson, father of 18-year-old Tommy Bearson, said the only way for those involved to get over the guilt is to come forward and tell everyone what happened.

“Until then, you will never find peace in your life,” he said.

Tommy Bearson went missing early in the morning of Saturday, September 20, 2014, after leaving a house party near the North Dakota State University campus in Fargo.

A cryptic tweet, posted at 1:23 a.m. on Bearson’s Twitter account by one of the people he may have been with, hinted that someone could be in danger.

Bearson’s body was found three days later, on September 23, in the parking lot of a motorhome dealership in Moorhead, about five miles from Fargo’s house.

His cell phone and the left tennis shoe he was wearing have never been found.

Jake Wenzel, a classmate of Bearson’s in Sartell, Minnesota, lived in the house where the party was held with Cody Mead, who first met Bearson that night, according to previous stories.

Wenzel allegedly sent the tweet from Bearson’s phone and tagged Mead there.

“… man it’s Jake come get us. We are so lost and we are going to die. Just get someone, ”the tweet read.

Wenzel has not responded to repeated requests for comment over the years. Mead said the police had what they needed from him and “better let them do their job and not compromise anything with their investigation.”

At first, the only explanation given for Bearson’s death was that he had been the victim of homicidal violence. He also did not die of a drug or alcohol overdose, police said.

His death certificate revealed that Bearson died of asphyxiation, meaning he was somehow deprived of oxygen until his death.

A forensic investigator said death by accident, suicide or natural causes could be ruled out.

Police officers from Fargo, NDSU, Moorhead, and investigators from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension all worked on the case initially, but the Moorhead Police Department became the lead agency due to where the body of Bearson has been found.

“Here we are seven years later. … It’s still an active and ongoing investigation, ”said Moorhead Deputy Chief Tory Jacobson.

Jacobson said he was not working directly on the homicide case, but was a public spokesperson for it from the start.

This helped to limit the amount and type of information disclosed, he said, a need to protect details that only the responsible person (s) could know.

“Sadly, at least publicly, we don’t have this break that we’ve all worked so hard for,” Jacobson said, adding that he hoped those answers would come.

Investigators are still holding team meetings on the case and staying in close contact with Bearson’s family, Jacobson said.

A few officers who did much of the early work have retired or moved on to other jobs but remain accessible and determined to see the case resolved, he said.

Tommy Bearson’s father has said the seven years have been extremely difficult, but he is convinced that a resolution is coming for his son.

“The day of reckoning is approaching,” said Greg Bearson.