Girlfriend of man accused of killing man, and hiding remains in tote, also faces charges
MILLE LACS COUNTY, Minn. -- A 21-year-old woman now faces charges after construction workers found a tote of human remains on the Mille Lacs Lake shoreline Tuesday.
On Friday, charges were filed in Mille Lacs County courts against 21-year-old Alexis Elling, of Rochester. The charges come in the wake of those filed against Bradley Allen Weyaus, 21, of Isle, who faces one count each of murder in the second degree and fleeing a peace officer, and two counts of interference with a dead body or scene of death.
According to the Mille Lacs County Sheriff's Office, highway maintenance workers found a tote bound with bungee cords and industrial tape near the 14200 block of Twilight Road. Upon opening it, they found human remains and immediately contacted the police.
The medical examiner's office earlier this week identified the victim as 25-year-old Rodney Pendegayosh Jr., of Isle, whose family reported him missing the day before his body was found.
Shortly after the tote was discovered, an investigator driving to the scene observed a white Saturn, like the one associated with Weyaus, heading in the same direction. The driver refused to pull over for the investigator and allegedly accelerated away at a high rate of speed. Law enforcement later located the white Saturn at a rural property with several buildings near Southport Road in Mille Lacs County. Police say a resident of the property told officers the Saturn had been driven by Weyaus.
Investigators found a number of items pertaining to the investigation in the trash of a residence Weyaus had been staying at, including pieces of carpet with what appeared to be blood stains on them and Pendegayosh's identification card cut into two pieces.
Inside the Saturn, police say they discovered a spent shotgun shell. Pendegayosh's throat area contained "several pellets of a type found in buckshot shotgun shells."
Officers arrested Weyaus, who had been hiding in one of the buildings on the property and recovered two duffel bags containing items including a hammer, a hacksaw and industrial tape consistent with the tape on the tote.
The new charges against Elling indicate that she is in, and admitted as such, a relationship with Weyaus. Elling's roommate said she was contacted by Weyaus and asked to help move a storage container, and Elling was present while the container was moved to the roommate's residence.
When contacted by police, Elling admitted that, while she did not help place Pendegayosh's body in the container, she did help move it knowing that his body was inside. She also admitted to moving a gun case, and said that the fake fingernail that was found inside the storage container did belong to her.
She faces felony charges of aiding an offender and acting as an accomplice after the fact, which is punishable with up to 20 years in prison upon conviction.