Charges: After Killing Father, Le Center Man Stopped Snowmobilers, Snow Plow Driver To Confess

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A 25-year-old Le Center, Minnesota man faces charges accusing him of fatally stabbing his father with a knife, setting fire to the shed with his father inside and then later stopping random strangers to tell them about the crime.

According to charges filed in Le Sueur County, Hardy Wills-Traxler faces second-degree murder and first-degree arson, both felonies, in connection to the Jan. 24 incident.

The criminal complaint alleges Wills-Traxler stabbed his father during an argument in the shed they were living in. He then set fire to the shed in the kitchen area of the dwelling, using pillow material and the cooking stove.

Wills-Traxler allegedly fled the area in a gold-colored Toyota Corolla. Authorities later received separate reports from a snow plow driver and from snowmobilers that a man matching Wills-Traxler's description stopped them, and said he "killed his father."

Wills-Traxler was later located and arrested by a Blue Earth County deputy.

The medical examiner later confirmed that the victim was Wills-Traxler's father, Bruce Traxler, and that he died from multiple stab wounds.

If convicted, Wills-Traxer could face up to 40 years in prison on the murder charge and up to 20 years on the arson charge. On Tuesday morning, a judge ordered him to be held without bail.