Items Found in Search for UND Student (Dru Sjodin)

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Volunteer searchers have turned up several "items of interest" in the disappearance of a University of North Dakota student, but nothing that has led investigators to Dru Sjodin.

Police on Tuesday sifted through discarded paper, clothes and other items gathered by hundreds of volunteers - some on their knees in the snow - in hopes of finding a cell phone or other links to Sjodin (pronounced shah-deen), who was last heard from over the weekend.

Police would not elaborate on the items that were found. Sgt. Michael Hedlund said they did not appear to be significant to the case.

The items were found in searches of ditches and fields southeast of Grand Forks, near Fisher, Minn., where a call had been traced to Sjodin's cell phone Saturday night. Grand Forks and Fisher are about 12 miles apart.

Grand Forks police said 1,300 people volunteered on Tuesday to join the search, a response so overwhelming they asked others to stay home.

Police believe Sjodin, 22, may have been abducted Saturday. They said Tuesday that they were working on the assumption she is still alive.

The searchers were bused to the Fisher area, snow covered the ground and the the wind made the temperature feel like 10 below zero.

Hannah Schlag, a UND student from Velva, was in a group of 12 walking through one five-mile section covered with snow.

"My ankles are getting a little numb, going through the deep stuff," she said. "But I feel this is what I should be doing right now. Biology doesn't seem that important."

Sjodin's father, Allan, and Hedlund appeared on television Tuesday morning to show Dru Sjodin's picture and ask for help.

The search was to resume Wednesday, but only with law enforcement personnel, Hedlund said. Authorities also are awaiting results from the state crime lab, which is analyzing Sjodin's car.

Sjodin, a graphic arts major from Pequot Lakes, Minn., was last seen late Saturday afternoon, as she was leaving the Columbia Mall store in Grand Forks where she worked. Her mother, Linda Walker, said her daughter was talking to her boyfriend in Minneapolis on her cell phone about 5 p.m. Saturday when he heard her say, "Oh, my God," before the phone went dead.

The boyfriend, whom authorities would not identify, called Sjodin's roommate to ask about her after a second call about three hours later that lasted only about a minute, with no conversation. The roommate called police after Sjodin, who had a reputation for reliability, did not show up for her 9 p.m. shift as a waitress in a Grand Forks bar.

Lt. Dennis Eggebraaten said he did not know why Sjodin's boyfriend did not call police.

"I'm not going to guess what was going on in his mind at the time," Eggebraaten said.

Police said the second cell phone signal put it within about five miles of the tower near Fisher from about 8 p.m. Saturday until the signal faded out 24 hours later.

Police said Sjodin's car was found in a Columbia Mall parking lot with a package inside that she apparently had bought at the mall. They found no sign of a struggle.

EXCERPT

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/7417457.htm

Posted on Fri, Dec. 05, 2003

Sjodin blood match reported
BY PHILLIP PIÑA and RUBÉN ROSARIO
Pioneer Press

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Bloodstains matching Dru Sjodin's blood type were found in the car of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., the repeat sex offender charged with abducting her outside a Grand Forks mall, sources close to the investigation said Thursday.

That evidence is perhaps the most revealing detail in the case that North Dakota authorities are building against the 50-year-old Rodriguez, who has been charged with kidnapping in the University of North Dakota student's disappearance two weeks ago. Detectives have remained tight-lipped about their investigation, even having many of the facts in court records sealed from public view.

According to the sources, an arrest warrant was issued Monday after a preliminary DNA analysis determined that the blood in Rodriguez's car could well be that of Sjodin. A more extensive analysis was then ordered.

(snip)

EXCERPT

http://startribune.com/stories/462/4248944.html

Knife sheath found in mall parking lot where Dru Sjodin abducted
Chuck Haga and Pat Doyle, Star Tribune

Published December 5, 2003 DRU05

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- As the man accused of kidnapping Dru Sjodin made his first court appearance on the charge Thursday, prosecutors kept an affidavit detailing their evidence sealed. But a law enforcement source close to the investigation confirmed that a knife sheath was found in the mall parking lot where Sjodin was abducted while talking on a cell phone.

"There was a sheath," the source said. "Whether it was connected to him will be determined later. It's been placed into evidence. Initially we thought it was more like a multitool," but upon examination it appeared to belong to a specific type of knife.

(snip)

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