Aug 16, 2007 7:14 am US/Central
Authorities Go Door To Door In N.D. For Fugitive
Velva, N.D. (AP) ―
The search for a man charged with murder in Minnesota and attempted murder in Louisiana centered around two small central North Dakota farming towns.
Officers were searching for Jeremy Dewayne Brooks, 27, of Greenwood, La. A woman believed to have been with him, Coty Martinez, 28, of Cut Off, La., was arrested Tuesday night in Velva, about 25 miles from Drake.
McHenry County Sheriff Marv Sola said officers were checking each home in Anamoose and Drake on Wednesday afternoon in their search for Brooks. The tiny farming communities are less than 10 miles apart.
"People are definitely locking their doors now," said Miranda Bonnet, a waitress at the Whistlestop Cafe in Drake. "We're out here on the farm and we never thought about locking our doors until we heard about this crazy man."
Sola said the search was difficult in wide open spaces.
"A lot of crops are up," Sola said. "He could be just about anywhere in those corn and sunflower fields."
Authorities got tips that Brooks had been seen along railroad tracks and near grain bins, McHenry County Chief Deputy Trey Skager said. A rural volunteer firefighter said he may have given Brooks a ride down the road.
"We're trying to follow up on every lead we have," Skager said.
"He may be on foot, or he's gotten a ride or hopped a train," Sola said. "A lot of trains come through at a pretty slow pace."
Brooks, who sometimes uses the name Travis Allen Guntenaar, has been charged in Wright County, Minn., in the killing of Ruth Ouverson, 58, of rural Montrose, Minn. Her body was found in a bedroom closet of her home on Aug. 4. Her Jeep Grand Cherokee was recovered Sunday in the parking lot of a Fargo Wal-Mart, where an image of a man police say is Brooks was caught by surveillance video.
Drake is about 180 miles northwest of Fargo.
Louisiana arrest warrants accuse Brooks and Martinez of attempted first-degree murder and armed robbery on June 2 in Slidell, La. In that case, Martinez is accused of luring a man to a hotel room where Brooks nearly beat him to death with a malt liquor bottle and a tire iron, authorities said.
Authorities said a deputy picked up Martinez on Tuesday night after an 86-year-old woman complained of a female vagrant at her home outside Drake. The deputy took the transient to a church group in Velva, and later asked authorities to check U.S. 52 for her because she had said she planned to hitchhike to Minot. Less than an hour later, authorities realized she was a suspect in the Minnesota killing, and arrested her on a road north of Velva.
They also got a report that a man, believed to be Brooks, had come to the Drake woman's home looking for his friend.
Brooks is a journeyman heavyweight boxer using the ring moniker of "Superstar," with a professional boxing record of 4-2, according to BoxRec.com. His last fight was on Oct. 4, 2005 in Memphis, Tenn., where he lost by unanimous decision.
A few days before Ouverson's body was found, authorities suspect Brooks and Martinez stole a large number of guns and knives from a nearby home. One of those guns was found in Ouverson's Jeep in Fargo.
Wright County Sheriff Gary Miller would not say how Ouverson died but said the killing may have happened during a random burglary. Brooks has been charged with second-degree murder and Martinez is wanted as a person of interest in the case.
Esther Weigel said Wednesday she had never seen so much excitement in Drake, a town of about 320 residents.
"There's a lot of patrols and cops in town, but I'm not scared at all," she said. "I'm a little apprehensive but I'm not scared. We all have to be really careful with something like this going on."
Authorities have been advising area residents to be on guard.
"It's definitely the talk of the town and we have our eyes open," said Sarah Rott, a bank teller in Anamoose, a town of about 280 people. "It kind of gives me the willies -- I hope they catch this guy soon."
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
