Police: 2 Dead Bodies Found In White Bear Lake Home
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Authorities in White Bear Lake say they are investigating two suspicious deaths in the city on Tuesday.
The White Bear Lake Police Department says they found two dead bodies at a home on the 4700 block of Sandra Lane after receiving a 7:30 a.m. call for a welfare check. There area is just north of Birch Lake Elementary School.
Investigators say it appeared the bodies had been there for an "extended period of time."
Police arrested a 59-year-old man, Robert James Kuefler, who was inside the home when police arrived. Authorities say medical staff examined Kuefler before detectives interviewed him. He's currently being held at the Ramsey County Jail on charges of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult.
"It just gives me a sick stomach to think that anything would happen to any of my neighbors, and that it would be that serious that they have to be here," Mary, who lives two doors down from the home, said.
Mary says she's lived on the block for 30 years. She says she knew the elderly couple that once lived in the home when the husband died in 2011. After that, Mary says the couple's twin sons moved in with their mom -- a woman that Mary says is not very mobile.
"She's an elderly woman," Mary said. "You just see her in her window watching the world go by."
Neighbor Kay Anderson said she noticed their grass kept getting longer, and it stuck with her.
"I called police and said, 'Maybe I'm sticking my nose where I shouldn't, but maybe you should just go over there and check,'" Anderson said. "I don't know, something just didn't seem right in my head. You know, you get that feeling sometimes. You look, 'Not perfect yards, but that doesn't look right.'"
Anderson called her neighbor frail, and chalked it up to her declining health.
"She used to put the garbage out and get the mail, but I haven't seen her do that in a long time," Anderson said.
She now realizes it has been about six months since she has seen her. The deaths disturbed the neighborhood.
"Holy buckets," Anderson said. "I have a real hard time with people not treating people well," she said.
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner will release the identity of the deceased and the cause of their death. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension assisting with the investigation.