Lynden woman charged with murder for alleged role in Minnesota abduction and killing
A 34-year-old Lynden woman is one of two people charged in Minnesota for her alleged role in the killing of another woman who was abducted from a Bloomington domestic violence shelter 11 years ago, police say.
Hennepin County prosecutors on Monday, March 16, charged Kellee Kristine Sorensen with second-degree murder for the 2009 death of April Pease, according to a release by the Bloomington Police Department. The release said Sorensen is in custody in Washington state.
Cedric Joseph Marks, 45, of Belton, Texas, who had one child with Pease while they lived in Washington, also is facing second-degree murder charges, KTSP.com reported.
Marks also is suspected of strangling his ex-girlfriend and another man to death in Texas, where he remains in jail in lieu of a $2 million bond, according to a Minneapolis Star Tribune story.
“Our thoughts are with her (Pease’s) family as they reflect back on the 11 painful years since she went missing,” Bloomington Police said in a statement Monday, according to story on Fox9.com. “We would like to thank all the local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies that assisted with this homicide case that spanned over four different states. ... They never gave up on trying to find April and hold those responsible for her disappearance accountable.”
Pease disappeared on March 16, 2009, the Bloomington Police release said, and last year detectives started focusing on Marks as a person of interest.
In January, detectives flew to Washington state to interview Pease’s mother, the Star Tribune reported, and she reportedly said Marks was abusive, even after her daughter left him, and managed to find her at a Seattle-area shelter where she was seeking drug treatment.
Sorenson, who was a girlfriend of Marks, told investigators she helped Marks find Pease by calling airlines and shelters around the country and even posing as her in an effort to discover where she was, the Star Tribune reported.
After Sorenson and Marks found her, Pease was transferred to another shelter in Bloomington, the Star Tribune reported, but with Sorenson’s help, Marks tracked her down again, attacked Pease while she was outside the shelter and forced her into his car.
Sorenson told police she returned Pease’s 4-year-old boy to the shelter and that all three of them drove off with Pease screaming for help, the Star Tribune reported.
At some point, the trio stopped near a shack, Sorrenson told police, according to the Fox9 story. Marks put Peace in a chokehold and dragged her out of Sorenson’s view as she sat in the car, but he later returned crying and reportedly said he killed Pease and removed her hands and teeth to make identification difficult.
Pease’s body has not been recovered, according to the police statement.
