Police say four people found dead in SUV in Wisconsin were killed in Minnesota, suspect reportedly told his father he ‘snapped’
Antoine Suggs has been charged with four counts of second-degree murder after an evening at St. Paul bar turned into a quadruple homicide
UPDATE: 9.21.21 9:10 p.m.
Suspect Antoine Suggs, who was reportedly casually dating Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, one of four people found shot to death in an SUV abandoned in Sheridan, Wisconsin, reportedly told his father he “snapped,” according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which updated the horrific story late Tuesday evening.
The criminal complaint alleges that Suggs, with four dead bodies in the car for over seven hours, drove around St. Paul, stopped to chat with his mother, got gas and something to drink and then had his father help him abandon the bodies in a Wisconsin cornfield.
Police were able to determine what allegedly took place based on video footage, cell phone info, and information provided by witnesses who saw the four victims while they were hanging together at the White Squirrel, a bar in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sept. 12 around 1 a.m.
Police say Jasmine Sturm, a longtime friend of Flug-Presley, her brother Matthew Pettus, and her boyfriend Loyace Freeman were joined by Flug-Presley and a man who police believe to be Suggs on the patio. From there the sequence of events unfolded as the group left in a Mercedes-Benz truck. It’s believed the four were shot around 3:30 a.m., according to the timeline in the Pioneer Press.
Suggs has been charged with four counts of second-degree murder with intent and is awaiting extradition from Arizona, where he lives. Ramsey County is requesting bail be set at $10M. Though it’s unclear what caused Suggs to kill four people, a witness at the bar said Suggs was arguing that “having six kids and this happens every time he comes back to Minnesota.”
ORIGINAL STORY BELOW:
Two people are now in police custody following an investigation of the mysterious shooting deaths of Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, Matthew Isaiah Pettus, 26, Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, and Loyace Foreman III, 35.
All four were found shot dead on Sept. 12 in an SUV in a Wisconsin cornfield. Though their bodies were discovered in Wisconsin, police believe the crime was committed in Minnesota, PEOPLE Magazine reports.
A news release from the St. Paul police department reads in part: “A thorough investigation into the four young adults found dead in an abandoned vehicle in rural Wisconsin has revealed the murders occurred in St. Paul, Minn.”
The four were found by a farmer in a cornfield just outside of the Town of Sheridan, Sunday, Sept. 12, and the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department originally took the lead in the investigation. But after gathering evidence and information about what happened before and after the bodies were discovered, investigators determined the killings occurred in Minnesota.
Darren McWright, who also goes by the last name Osborne, was arrested on Sept. 15 in connection to the murders. He is “being held in the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center on several outstanding warrants, including at least one out of Dunn County.”
On Sept. 17, another suspect, Antoine D. Suggs, turned himself into police in Arizona. The release notes that Suggs is awaiting extradition to Minnesota. Suggs and Osborne are father and son, and as theGrio previously reported.
Suggs and Flug-Presley had a casual dating relationship. Damone Presley, Flug-Presley’s father, knew Osborne and said the two exchanged pleasantries when they ran into each other a month or so before the murders.
In a news conference police held last week, it was revealed that three of the victims —Pettus, Foreman III, and Sturm — were from St. Paul, Minn. Flug-Presley was from Stillwater, Minnesota. Per the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Sturm was Foreman’s girlfriend and Pettus was Sturm’s brother.
Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd said during a news conference that the four victims visited a St. Paul bar on the evening of Sept. 11. Witnesses revealed they were seen leaving with someone not in their group but police say they have no link so far to either drugs or “organized criminal activity” in the killings.
As the accused murderers crossed state lines to leave the bodies, the FBI Minneapolis is now involved, an FBI spokesman confirmed. There are no ties any of the victims have to Sheridan, Wisconsin that police have discovered thus far and they have not revealed who the abandoned SUV was registered to. They believe the killers left the scene in another SUV and will be looking at surveillance cameras from bridges and highways nearby, police say.
St. Paul Chief of Police Todd Axtell released a statement regarding the victims and the investigation.
“I spent the weekend mourning the victims’ lives with their families, their friends, and our community members, and I feel in my soul how these senseless deaths shook our community to its core. We have four young lives — with all of their promise — erased. We have families left with only memories,” he said.
Of the arrest, he thanked police for their work.
“I’m proud of the work our investigators have put into the case—sleepless nights, days upon days at work, going home only to tuck their kids into bed and then returning to the office. I’m confident their dedication and unrelenting commitment to seeking justice for these four lost lives will soon provide the answers their loved ones so desperately seek,” Axtell said.
Mayor Melvin Carter also spoke out, calling the murders “one of the most heartbreaking traumas our community has ever endured.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to assist in funeral expenses for Sturm and Pettus. Sturm was a mother to two children, while Pettus is described as “infinitely curious and always on the move.” Flug-Presley was also a mother of two children, per a GoFundMe page. Her children, 11 and 4-years-old, are taking her death “very hard” as reported by the Pioneer Press.
Foreman III’s GoFundMe page reads in part: “His loss was unexpected and horrifying. He leaves behind the broken hearts of his two sons, parents, siblings and many friends.”
Additional reporting by Tonya Pendleton
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