Intern Detective ‘Piecing Together’ Minnetonka Cold Case

In November 1973, a 22-year-old Minnetonka man was found shot dead and left in a wooded area in the city. To this day, the case remains Minnetonka’s only unsolved murder.  

But now a fresh pair of eyes is taking a look at this cold case. Those eyes belong to 21-year-old University of Minnesota student Larissa Johnson who has been the ’s ‘intern detective’ since mid-January.

“I’m just going back to the very beginning and starting over with it; Digging through the details, piecing things together,” said Johnson.

The ‘intern detective’ program started when  asked his fellow Minnetonka police detectives about getting an extra hand around the office. Everyone agreed there were some “loose ends” that could be tied up.

“The last few years we have been inundated with some complex fraud and white collar crimes with a lot of evidence-based paperwork,” said the 17-year police veteran.

“We figured the intern would be taking on that responsibility,” he said.

But when Minnetonka Police recently got new information from an old source about the city’s only unsolved murder, Johnson's intern duties took on a new level of responsibility.

“A cold case is very labor intensive, Larissa can take a good look at our ‘old’ case and take the time to dedicate to it,” Sgt. Riegert said.  Johnson, a Golden Valley native, is a double major in Spanish and Sociology, with a focus on law and criminal deviance.

And now in addition to her other intern duties, to which she dedicates about 15 hours a week, Johnson also rummages through an old box of evidence, looking for new information on Minnetonka’s coldest case.

“No one here really knows it front to back – the case is well-documented. She’s putting it together and will give us a presentation on it. With new technology, we’ll see if there’s more places we can go with the case,“ said Sgt. Riegert.

Sgt. Riegert said that while no staff remain on the force who worked with the original case, those retired detectives are within reach if needed.

“We always thought this is something we should probably take another look at,” Sgt. Riegert said. “Since technology changed over 5 or 10 years ago, there’s a lot more we can do with [the case].”

“It’s really interesting,” says Johnson, “it’s a lot of papers to go through, documents, letters that are in there. Every time I go through the box, I find out something or get something that I missed before.”

And when she’s not leafing through the dated box for information on the city’s oldest unsolved murder, Johnson is also pegged with recovering stolen property.

“We have a tremendous amount of burglaries, theft from autos, auto thefts, etc. It’s the city’s biggest crime. We’re really trying to track the stolen property down,” Sgt. Riegert said.

Johnson will soon have the task of scrolling eBay, craigslist and pawn networks to recover Minnetonka residents’ stolen goods. In between her bouts in dispatch, she also rides along in patrol cars and attends shooting lessons at the gun range.

“I’m exploring my options, trying to figure out what I want to do down the road,” she said. “I figured it would be a good jumping off point.”

If nothing else, having the chance to crack one of the city’s oldest mysteries is at least a good resume booster.