Twin Cities (Minnesota) woman killed after answering Internet advertisement on Craigs List
By Trisha Volpe, KARE 11 News. Photo of Katherine Ann Olson
Katherine Ann Olson had accomplished a lot in just 24 years. She was co-valedictorian at her high school in Cottage Grove. She studied theatre at St. Olaf. She traveled the world, even joined the circus in Argentina and worked as a nanny in Turkey.
Her family says Katherine hoped that experience would help find her a job at home in the TwinCities. They also say Katherine often found the internet, and Craig's List, in particular to be a helpful tool to meet people and find opportunities.
This week, police say a man used the internet to lure Katherine to her death. Authorities say Katherine was looking for a job on Craig's List, an internet web site for classified advertising, when police say she saw a posting that peaked her interest - someone looking for a babysitter in Savage. Katherine had some nanny experience and applied for the job police say.
She left her home in Minneapolis Thursday morning to answer the ad and meet the person who posted it, but she never returned. The next day, after her roommate told police she hadn't seen Katherine since Thursday morning, and after someone found Katherine 's purse and a towel full of blood at a Savage ball field, police found Katherine 's body. She was in the trunk of her own car, about a mile away. The car was parked at Kramer Patk Reserve in Burnsville.
Police say Katherine Olson simply answered the Craig's List ad, and the person who posted it killed her. That man is 19-years-old and from Savage. He's now in the Scott County jail on suspicion of murder.
"It's not the typical, by any means, homicide where most of them there's some type of relationship between the victim and the suspect. And we have not, at this point, other than the Craig's List connection determined anything further than that," says Captain David Muelken with the Savage Police Department.
At this point police are still trying to determine where and how Katherine was killed and why. The man now accused in her murder is expected to be charged officially on Monday.
Police say the suspect was actually arrested at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport Friday, where he worked. Friends tell us it was a new job, fueling airplanes.
Retrieved October 28, 2007 from http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=268340
Katherine Ann Olson had accomplished a lot in just 24 years. She was co-valedictorian at her high school in Cottage Grove. She studied theatre at St. Olaf. She traveled the world, even joined the circus in Argentina and worked as a nanny in Turkey.
Her family says Katherine hoped that experience would help find her a job at home in the TwinCities. They also say Katherine often found the internet, and Craig's List, in particular to be a helpful tool to meet people and find opportunities.
This week, police say a man used the internet to lure Katherine to her death. Authorities say Katherine was looking for a job on Craig's List, an internet web site for classified advertising, when police say she saw a posting that peaked her interest - someone looking for a babysitter in Savage. Katherine had some nanny experience and applied for the job police say.
She left her home in Minneapolis Thursday morning to answer the ad and meet the person who posted it, but she never returned. The next day, after her roommate told police she hadn't seen Katherine since Thursday morning, and after someone found Katherine 's purse and a towel full of blood at a Savage ball field, police found Katherine 's body. She was in the trunk of her own car, about a mile away. The car was parked at Kramer Patk Reserve in Burnsville.
Police say Katherine Olson simply answered the Craig's List ad, and the person who posted it killed her. That man is 19-years-old and from Savage. He's now in the Scott County jail on suspicion of murder.
"It's not the typical, by any means, homicide where most of them there's some type of relationship between the victim and the suspect. And we have not, at this point, other than the Craig's List connection determined anything further than that," says Captain David Muelken with the Savage Police Department.
At this point police are still trying to determine where and how Katherine was killed and why. The man now accused in her murder is expected to be charged officially on Monday.
Police say the suspect was actually arrested at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport Friday, where he worked. Friends tell us it was a new job, fueling airplanes.
Retrieved October 28, 2007 from http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=268340