Police Seek Clues In Triple Homicide
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Under a shroud of anxiety, police seek clues in triple killing
St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington said the investigation into the slayings at a North End home could be "a long haul.'' The chief said, "This kind of shooting almost never is about money."
By Tom Ford and James Walsh, Star Tribune
Last update: March 24, 2007 – 11:53 PM
Friday: Triple homicide stuns St. Paul neighborhood
Still unsure of basic details such as how many suspects were involved in Friday's triple killing or how they fled the St. Paul home after shooting a man, a woman and a teenager, investigators continue to sort through possible leads, Police Chief John Harrington said Saturday.
"It's so early, we're going in a hundred different directions trying to figure out which one looks promising," he said. Harrington noted that roughly one-fourth of the department's investigative resources has been devoted to the case.
Killed were Brittany Kekadakis, 15, her mother, Maria McLay, 32, and McLay's 31-year-old boyfriend, who family members said was known as both Otahl Saunders and Otahl Webb.
The bulk of the work in the coming days, Harrington said, will likely dwell on gathering evidence at the dead family's home in the city's North End neighborhood and elsewhere:
Checking any doorknob or overturned piece of furniture in the home for fingerprints. Seeing whether any nearby business or traffic cameras captured an image of the suspects. Asking their law enforcement partners to stay tuned to any rumor or tip floating about.
What led to the shootings is unknown, but Harrington said he would be surprised if drugs were not part of the motive. Many who live in the area said Saturday they breathed a sigh of relief upon learning that police believe the crime was not random. But anxiety still hung over the block.
"People here already mostly stay inside," said Glen Huber, a 10-year-resident of the neighborhood.
"We stay to ourselves."
Dawnette Meadows, who lives just a few doors away from the site of the shooting on the 200 block of Burgess Street, said, "This isn't the neighborhood where you're going to see us out having a street party."
She said she won't let her four boys -- ages 13, 10, 9 and 6 -- leave the confines of her fenced yard.
But that was the case long before the killings. She grew up in the area and said it has changed for the worse. She has found used needles, a crack pipe and baggies in her yard.
The three victims in Friday's attack were shot after a group of males, perhaps five to seven, forced their way through a rear door of the house around 6 or 6:30 a.m. and then spent time ransacking the house, Harrington said.
McLay's two younger children, a boy and girl, were also inside at the time.
He wasn't sure whether the children saw the shootings, but Harrington said they apparently were in close enough proximity to be considered witnesses.
He said the suspects apparently left the children unharmed inside the house after they shot the others. Soon after the suspects were gone, the children ran to the nearby home of relatives to call 911.
A neighbor later told police they saw a dark-colored SUV with many people inside leave the area about the time of the shootings, though it's unclear whether that is connected at all to the crime.
At this point, Harrington said, police are relying heavily on the children's recollections of what happened.
"We're dealing with kids," he said. "Frightened kids who are in a lot of shock and a lot of pain right now."
The children reported that the suspects demanded money after they broke in.
"What they asked for was money," Harrington said. "But this kind of shooting almost never is about money. ... In my experience, it is much more likely that someone was there looking for drugs or looking for drug money."
Police have declined to discuss whether there was anything in the victims' backgrounds that might have led them to be targeted.
Isaac Funches, the next-door neighbor of the victims, said his family and the victims socialized over the fence during backyard barbecues. And his children played with McLay's children nearly every day.
"It doesn't make any sense. They were good people," he said of McLay and her boyfriend. "I saw them bring the mother out on a stretcher."
Outside the victims' home, a makeshift memorial included lighted candles, teddy bears, even a couple of balloons.
As fog shrouded the area Saturday morning, a dark-haired young man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and baggy jeans sat down on the curb in front of the home, folded his arms and wept.
By Tom Ford and James Walsh, Star Tribune
Last update: March 24, 2007 – 11:53 PM
Three people were killed in a triple shooting in St. Paul on Friday morning.
Related Content
Friday: Triple homicide stuns St. Paul neighborhood
Community meeting
Kekadakis, a 10th-grader at St. Paul's Como Park High School, was the young man's girlfriend.
"I got off work early [Friday] so I could see her, and a friend called me and told me she was shot," said Charlie Dupey. "I didn't believe him, so I called around and everybody told me the same thing."
Dupey said he called Brittany at the same time every morning from his job at McDonald's -- around 6:30 a.m. "But yesterday, I called her at 6:35 and she didn't answer," he said.
City Council Member Lee Helgen, whose ward includes the neighborhood where the killings occurred, said police and city officials continue to hold regular meetings about crime in the area and said efforts to target the worst properties continue. But, he said, the neighborhood in general is a solid, working-class area not known for violent crime.
A community meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Rice Street Library, Helgen said. Fliers regarding the meeting will be passed out Monday.
Bob Hume, spokesman for Mayor Chris Coleman, said Saturday that Coleman "has total confidence in the Police Department and Chief Harrington apprehending these guys. He wants folks to know they're safe."
In light of the circumstances of the killings, Harrington said that the individuals responsible for them are "cowards of the worst sort. These are people that would do anything. So the urgency to find them and get them off the streets makes it the most important job of the department right now."
The investigation could be a "long haul," and so he called on people who think they saw or heard anything related to the crime to contact police.
"Anything that anybody saw, whether they think it's important or not," he said. "If they were in the area delivering papers, picking up the trash, coming home from wherever, anything they saw. We don't know what's important at this point."
James Walsh • jwalsh@startribune.com • 612-673-7428 Tom Ford • tford@statribune.com • 612-673-4921
It was Col. Mustard in the library with the candlestick....
MEDIA ADVISORY
Saint Paul Police Department
367 Grove Street
Saint Paul, MN 55101
Officer Paul Schnell
Chief’s Assistant for Media Relations
John M.Harrington
CHIEF OF POLICE
March 26, 2007
Early Forensics
Detectives from the Saint Paul Police department’s homicide unit have been able to review the preliminary findings of the Medical Examiner and the evidence collected by the crime lab and are able to put together a better picture of the sequence of events that occurred at 292 Burgess on the morning of March 23rd. While that information is not being made public at this time, it is valuable to the investigators. A number of items have been forwarded to the BCA crime lab for additional forensic analysis.
Homicide investigators, along with officers from other units and from our law enforcement partners are continuing to gather information that we feel will lead us to the suspects in this violent and cowardly act.
The Saint Paul Police Foundation has established a reward fund at the Bremmer Bank in Lawson Commons in down town Saint Paul. The NAACP has pledged $1,000 to that fund and it appears that other corporate partners will be making contributions also. Funds will be awarded for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people responsible for the killing of Othal Saunders, Maria McLay, and Brittany Kekedakis.
Any one with information is asked to call 651-291-1111
Saint Paul Police Department - Committed to Excellence, Ethics, Empathy & Education
A MESSAGE TO THE CITY COUNCIL- Please read below what this woman has to say about the North End.
Your so called problem property approach to fighting crime is a total failure.
WE NEED AN EFFECTIVE CRIME STRATEGY!
HOW BAD DOES THE LEVEL OF CRIME HAVE TO GET BEFORE YOU ALL REALIZE YOUR MISTAKES?
Dawnette Meadows, who lives just a few doors away from the site of the shooting on the 200 block of Burgess Street, said, "This isn't the neighborhood where you're going to see us out having a street party."
She said she won't let her four boys -- ages 13, 10, 9 and 6 -- leave the confines of her fenced yard.
But that was the case long before the killings. She grew up in the area and said it has changed for the worse. She has found used needles, a crack pipe and baggies in her yard.
Haven't we heard Helgen and others try and claim this was a quiet neighborhood and they credited it to getting rid of some problem properties.
It is election year they don't want people to know the truth as it has been told here for months.
Our local media venues should be ashamed this little blog out shines them day after day with the truth in local issues
1:44 PM
Bob said...
Your so called problem property approach to fighting crime is a total failure.
Mayor Chris Coleman lives across the street from Cherokee Park where the crime is at o% and Dave Thune live down off
West 7th st. close to the Forepaws Restaurant and Lee Helgen, Look up their addresses, and drive by their homes and see why there is
NO CRIME on their blocks.
Bob Hume is The mouth for the mayor.
The police might give them special treatment on their Streets.
B.B. The Bad Boy
St. Paul / Shooting victim had warrant
Deputies had searched for Saunders, killed in Friday's triple homicide, since 2002
BY MARA H. GOTTFRIED
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 03/27/2007 12:29:34 AM CDT
Triple homicide
Vigil held in wake of triple homicide in St. PaulSlayings revive a painful memoryOtahl "Telly" Saunders, one of three people fatally shot inside a St. Paul house last week, was a wanted man when he died.
Authorities had been looking for Saunders since 2002, when prosecutors accused him of ditching a 56-gram chunk of cocaine while running from a St. Paul officer.
They didn't find him until Friday. Saunders, 31, had been shot along with his fiancee, Maria McLay, 32, and his fiancee's daughter, Brittany Kekedakis, 15.
As many as five masked gunmen broke into McLay's North End home and, according to a family friend, demanded money and drugs and ransacked the house.
McLay's two younger children, a 7-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, were lying next to the three when they were shot in the head and ran to get help after the gunmen left, a relative said.
No arrests have been made and police haven't speculated about a motive, but they have said the killings likely were not random. The fact that Saunders has a criminal record "at least gives us some pause," police Chief John Harrington said Saturday.
Relatives have said the couple wasn't involved in drugs and repeated their call Monday for the public not to jump to conclusions.
Also Monday, the St. Paul Police Foundation announced it has established a reward fund. The NAACP pledged $1,000.
Homicide investigators have reviewed the Ramsey County medical examiner's office preliminary findings and evidence collected by the crime lab to put together a better sequence of the events
Friday at 292 Burgess St., said Tom Walsh, a police spokesman, who didn't detail the findings.
Items have been forwarded to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's crime lab for additional forensic analysis, Walsh said.
Mayor Chris Coleman touched on the homicides during his State of the City address Monday.
"In Friday morning's darkness, we saw the power of evil," he said. "And we will not let it stand. The St. Paul police will find those responsible for this cowardly act and bring them to justice.
About 25 of Kekedakis' friends gathered on the front porch of her home and in the yard Monday. They said they couldn't face classes at Como Park Senior High School, where Kekedakis was also a student, and came to show support for her family.
A pastor and street minister from the nearby North Heights Urban Outreach Center stopped by about noon and asked students to form a circle and hold hands.
"Heal my friends here," said Seraph Rodriguez, the street minister, as students sobbed.
Stuffed animals, candles and flowers that had been in front of the home, near the curb, had been moved to line the front walkway.
"I don't think she knew how many people's lives she touched," said Nieckia Weinandt, a junior. "I don't want to believe she's gone. It's too hard."
McLay was an insurance claims analyst at Travelers in downtown St. Paul, and relatives said she was proud to have bought her own home two years ago.
Saunders had been looking for work and took care of his two children and McLay's kids. Neighbors and friends said he was well-liked and known for organizing outings for neighborhood youths.
The warrant for Saunders' arrest was issued March 26, 2002, the day after the Ramsey County attorney's office charged him with first-degree drug possession.
After officers pulled over a car Saunders was riding in on Jan. 16, 2002, he jumped out in the 1300 block of Sherburne Avenue and started running away, according to the complaint.
An officer ran after Saunders and saw him throw something in the snow, the complaint said. After he had caught up with and arrested Saunders, the officer went back and found a paper towel with 56 grams of cocaine inside, the complaint said.
When an officer first interviewed Saunders, he denied having the drugs, but the next day he admitted to dropping them while the officer chased him, the complaint said.
Saunders was no longer in jail when he was charged, so a warrant was issued. Ramsey County sheriff's deputies tried finding him over the years and had looked for him as recently as Feb. 23, but couldn't find where he was living, said Sheriff Bob Fletcher.
It's not clear why Saunders wasn't apprehended on the warrant in 2004, when he was convicted of driving while impaired after being stopped by the Minnesota State Patrol.
Saunders also was charged with a drug-related offense in September 2001.
A confidential informant for the Dakota County Drug Task Force bought 2 grams of crack cocaine in West St. Paul from a man sitting in a vehicle that Saunders owned and was driving at the time, according to a complaint.
Police found a scale and a bag containing a trace amount of cocaine next to the driver's seat, and a stolen mountain bike in the back, the complaint said.
The Dakota County attorney's office charged Saunders with receiving stolen property, and he was convicted. Authorities also charged him with fifth-degree drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia but later dropped those charges.
Saunders had told a judge in 1998 that he was trying to turn his life around.
In 1996, the Ramsey County attorney's office had charged Saunders with dangerous discharge of a firearm for firing shots in a St. Paul neighborhood. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 70 days in jail, three years' probation and community service.
Saunders admitted he had used marijuana, a violation of his probation, in 1997 and was ordered to serve 45 days in the workhouse. But when he didn't show up to serve his time, a warrant was issued and he wasn't found for almost a year afterward.
"I just need another chance to be here for my son," Saunders said to District Judge Larry Cohen during his 1998 hearing, according to a transcript.
But Cohen told Saunders he had heard that before from him.
"I understand you've heard it but all I can say is that I understand I can't mess up," Saunders said. "This ain't me. This ain't me, your honor."
Cohen sentenced him to a year in prison.
Mara H. Gottfried covers St. Paul public safety. She can be reached at mgottfried@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5262.
How to help
Anyone who wishes to contribute to the reward fund can do so at any Bremer Bank branch.
Police ask anyone with information about the case to contact them at 651-291-1111.
If You Go
What: Community meeting about the triple homicide
When: Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.
Where: St. Paul Public Library, Rice Street branch, 1011 Rice St.
So now it comes out that one of the victim's had an active arrest warrant for possession of 56 grams of cocaine. That isn't any justification for a murder, but it does tend to imply that there may be more at play here... One question needing to be asked is "Just how incompetant is the State Patrol"? They had the victim/accused stopped for a traffic offense, had they arrested him on that warrant, he might still be alive. State troopers are not fully functioning intellects, they take a normal person, put them in their academy, scream at them for weeks, then put them in a car without human interaction, and expect that they will be normally functioning after spending time writing tickets and cleaning up brain matter from the highways. The State Patrol screwed up, just like the Sherbune County Jail screwed up a few months ago when a sociopathic inmate killed some poor bastard when he got booked into the jail on a traffic matter. Someone needs to do some esplainin'
MEDIA ADVISORY
Saint Paul Police Department
367 Grove Street
Saint Paul, MN 55101
Officer Paul Schnell
Chief’s Assistant for Media Relations
John M.Harrington
CHIEF OF POLICE
March 27, 2007
Reward Increased For Information In Triple Murder
The Saint Paul Police Foundation has announced that the reward for information in the murders of Otahl Saunders, Maria McLay, and Brittany Kekedakis has been increased to $7,000. The Saint Paul NAACP, Crime Stoppers, and the Saint Paul Police department have pledged contributions to the fund. The fund is being held by Bremer Bank and contributions can be made at any branch of Bremer Bank or, to the Saint Paul Police Foundation.
Senior Commander Tim Lynch, of the homicide unit, has indicated that review of the forensic evidence is helping to focus the energy of investigators. Investigators from the Homicide unit, Special Investigations, the Gang unit, Force, and other law enforcement partners continue to have this case as a first priority.
The funeral for all three is on Friday, March 30th at 11:00 A.M. at Bradshaw Funeral Home at 1078 N. Rice St. in Saint Paul.
Saint Paul Police Department - Committed to Excellence, Ethics, Empathy & Education
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