The Twin Cities home where Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband were fatally shot Saturday was broken into overnight Wednesday, police say.
Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed in their home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, at about 3:30 a.m. Saturday in what Gov. Tim Walz called a “political assassination.”
Brooklyn Park police say the home had been boarded up early Sunday after investigators processed all of the evidence at the scene, and family members had removed “items of value” from the residence on Tuesday.
“It was discovered that the plywood covering the rear window of the home had been pried off and the window broken to gain entry,” police said in a statement released late Wednesday morning.
Police say crime scene investigators searched the home again, and family members say “they don’t believe anything was missing.” Police are still searching for the suspect.
Anyone with information on the break-in, including neighborhood residents who have surveillance cameras, are asked to contact the Brooklyn Park Police Department at 763-493-8222.
The man accused of killing the Hortmans, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, is in custody and facing federal and state murder charges following a 36-plus-hour manhunt which authorities say was the largest of its kind in state history.
Investigators accuse Boelter of also shooting and seriously wounding Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette about an hour before killing the Hoffmans.
Authorities also believe Boelter visited the homes of two other state lawmakers in the metro that same morning, one of whom wasn’t home. The other, Sen. Ann Rest, was at home, but Boelter was reportedly scared off by a police officer before approaching the residence.
In an interview with CBS News, Melissa Hortman’s mother, Lisa Haluptzok, said the pain of her daughter’s death is “mind-numbing.”
“It’s been very hard the last few days,” her father Patrick Haluptzok said. “In what seems unfair and tragic, the way her last night was spent. We’re just trying to get by.”
A candlelight vigil for the Hortmans is set for Wednesday evening at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., according to Minnesota House officials.
This story will be updated.
Lilia Luciano and
contributed to this report.
Caroline Cummings is an Emmy-winning reporter with a passion for covering politics, public policy and government. She is thrilled to join the WCCO team.
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