Probation officer gives office BJ to boot-camp teen
Crossbow, Baseball Bat, Burn Pit: The Gruesome Death of Edwin Hawes
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 at 10:31 am
Criminal Complaint against Kristina Dorniden.
Police in rural southern Minnesota believe three people conspired to kill Edwin Hawes, age 46. Authorities allege Hawes was shot with a crossbow, beaten with a baseball bat and run over with a Volkswagen Passat. Then they say Hawes was taken to a remote farm and his remains burned to bone and ash. And two of the conspirators were his own brother and sister.
Andrew Hawes is 36, his sister Elizabeth is 43. They, along with Andrew's girlfriend, 29-year-old Kristina Marie Dorniden, now face multiple charges related to Edwin's murder. The Star-Tribune reports that the younger siblings may have been seeking revenge. They believed that Edwin embezzled money from a family-owned landscaping business.
Gawker, a site that doesn't typically cover true crime stories outside of New York, framed this as a new Coen Brothers Movie. Their justification for such a flight of imagination was pretty good. I'll quote from the criminal complaint, because sometimes the dry prose of a legal document reveals just how strange the story truly is:
"City of Westbrook [MN] Police Chief Wahl went to the Hawes farm where he observed a large, illegal fire. At the scene was Andrew Hawes, who the chief knew. Chief Wahl spoke with Andrew regarding the fire and then left the scene. Chief Wahl returned about 1:00 a.m., with additional law enforcement officers and Andrew was no longer at the scene, however Elizabeth was now at the fire. When asked at the scene about the fire, Elizabeth Hawes said 'That's not my brother.'"
Unfortunately for Elizabeth Hawes, dental records revealed her to be a liar.
Elizabeth and Andrew Hawes and Kristina Dorniden are in the Anoka County jail. They could all face up to 40 years in prison. [StarTribune.com via Gawker.]
Tags: Andrew Hawes, baseball bat, Coen Brothers, crossbow, Edwin Hawes, Elizabeth Hawes, embezzled, embezzlement, Gawker, Kristina Dorniden, Minnesota, Star-Tribune
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