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National Guard searches for Dru Sjodin
by Dan Gunderson, Minnesota Public Radio
December 12, 2003

Grand Forks County Sheriff Dan Hill says it's unlikely Dru Sjodin will be found alive, but he vowed to keep searching for the missing 22-year old student. (MPR photo/Dan Gunderson)

National Guard troops joined law enforcement officers Friday in the ongoing search for 22-year old Dru Sjodin. The University of North Dakota College student was allegedly kidnapped from a mall parking lot nearly three weeks ago. Convicted sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. is accused of committing the crime. He's in the Grand Forks county jail.

Moorhead, Minn. — Law enforcement agencies in Minnesota and North Dakota expect to cover several hundred square miles around Crookston and Grand Forks.

The search is expected to take about three days.

Minnesota National Guard Lt. Col. Gary Sigfrinius will direct 160 troops, most from the Brainerd based 1st Battalion 194th Armored Division. They'll search areas south and west of Crookston.

"It's our intent to deploy 25 humvees with four soldiers in each humvee," says Sigfrinius. "We will search designated areas looking along the roads in every abandoned farmstead, every piece of equipment, ditches, culverts, anything that might produce some information." This is not the first such search mission for Lt. Col. Sigfrinius. He was also involved in high profile searches for Julie Holmquist near Hallock, and Katie Poirer near Duluth. He says with little information to direct the search, the mission is to quickly but thoroughly search a large area.

"Sometimes when people are searching there's a possibility that they could have been close to something and not realized it was there. So we're going to be scouring that area again." - Grand Forks Sheriffs Dept. Capt. Mike Fonder

Across the Red River in North Dakota, about 90 troops from the Grand Forks based 188th Air Defense Artillery will join state troopers, local sheriffs deputies, and conservation officers in the search.

North Dakota Highway Patrol Assistant Field Operations Commander Capt. Scott Brand is helping coordinate the search. "We have 58 highway patrolmen who will be in the Grand Forks area to assist. All my 4x4 vehicles around the state, that's 26 or 27 vehicles, will be here. And then with the assistance of the National Guard we're going to see if we can find Dru," says Brand.

Grand Forks County Sheriffs Department Major Mike Fonder says one final large scale search is needed before heavy winter snow blankets the area.

Much of the area has already been searched.

"Sometimes when people are searching there's a possibility that they could have been close to something and not realized it was there. So we're going to be scouring that area again," says Fonder. Searchers will also look in the water under a bridge south of Grand Forks. They'll drill hundreds of holes in the river ice and lower cameras into the muddy water.

"The holes are drilled several feet apart so you make allowances for the decreased visibility so we're almost a couple feet apart so we can search thoroughly in the bottom with those cameras," Fonder says.

He says there's no new information to point searchers in a particular direction. Suspect Alfonso Rodreguez Jr. has not been cooperating with investigators. But Fonder says after this weekend search is complete, he'll be confident every possible effort has been made to find Dru Sjodin.

"Everybody who's been involved in this search from the beginning is frustrated because we haven't had any success to locate Dru at this time. The family obviously is hoping we're able to find her and we're all going to come together this weekend and perform this search and hopefully it's effective and we can find her," says Fonder.

The search should be completed sometime Sunday. Law enforcement officials say they've yet to tally the cost of the searches, but the Sjodin investigation is straining local law enforcement budgets.

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