31 May 2024
MONTEVIDEO, Minn. — One year after it began its investigation, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is preparing to wrap up its review of the Montevideo Police Department’s investigation into the suspicious death of 36-year-old Refugio Rodriguez, who was found dead on Sept. 20, 2020, along a popular walking path in Montevideo, Minnesota.
A representative of the BCA confirmed the impending closure of the review in an email Wednesday, May 29.
The BCA opened review of Rodriguez’s death in February 2023 after a Forum News Service investigation revealed errors in the Montevideo Police Department’s initial investigation, which promptly closed the case after labeling it a suicide without following potentially promising leads and processing what appeared to be crucial evidence.
Rodriguez’s family told Forum News Service this week it remains frustrated with critical errors committed during the initial investigation. They continue to believe his death was the result of foul play.
Investigative documents obtained by Forum News Service revealed four people provided the Montevideo Police Department with the same story in the days after his death: Rodriguez’s life had been threatened by one individual multiple times for his alleged role as a confidential informant for law enforcement.
The named individual had allegedly put a ‘hit’ out on Rodriguez.
The Montevideo Police Department made no attempt to contact the individual who allegedly threatened Rodriguez’s life. Alleged accomplices were not interviewed, either.
Discrepancies regarding the scene of the death were also discovered in the medical examiner’s final summary and the official police report, raising questions about the accuracy of information provided to the medical examiner’s office by deputies at the scene.
Expert insight provided to Forum News Service in 2022 also raised questions about errors in police procedure that compromised evidence collected from the death scene and failed to document critical details related to the hose found around Rodriguez’s neck.
As the Forum News Service investigative series continued, the Montevideo Police Department issued a terse statement.
“The Montevideo Police Department has asked the MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) to review Refugio Rodriguez’s death investigation to determine whether the cause of death was indeed suicide,” Montevideo Police Chief Ken Schule said in a emailed statement to Forum News Service on Feb. 27, 2023. “The BCA has agreed to review this investigation.”
Processing the death scene
Initial reports from the Montevideo Police Department indicated Rodriguez was found by a walker in the early morning hours of Sept. 20, 2020 hanging from a tree in Chinhinta Park, alongside a paved walking path.
In Forum News Service’s 2022 interview with Schule, the Montevideo police chief, he revealed that Rodriguez was found with his knees on the ground and a garden hose wrapped around his neck. The hose was connected to a tree, located alongside the walking path.
Officers at the scene cut the hose with a pocket knife, compromising what could have been evidence related to Rodriguez’s death. It is not clear whether officers wore gloves in the process to refrain from contaminating the death scene.
Sal Rastrelli, a retired crime scene investigator with more than 30 years of experience specializing in cases involving suicides and homicides, spoke with Forum News Service in 2022 after reviewing the police report, medical examiner’s report and available crime scene photos.
“In this particular case, apparently they don’t have a crime scene unit. So what they should have a protocol for, especially in a serious case like this one, a very suspicious death, is to call the local larger agency that has a crime scene unit and ask for assistance,” Rastrelli said.
Although this was initially considered a suspicious death, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was not called to process the scene — a standard practice in Minnesota when homicide could be a possible cause of death.
Rastrelli also noted that responding officers failed to document critical details regarding the height at which the hose was wrapped around the tree. Considering there was no ladder found near Rodriguez’s body, that detail could be critical in determining how — if his death was a suicide — he was able to maneuver himself to that height.
Responding officers also did not collect hair and fiber from Rodriguez’s clothing and did not document whether there were foot impressions around his body, according to information gleaned from the police report. There was no information related to the origin of the hose.
Officers indicated in the police report that they reached inside Rodriguez’s pockets — a move that could have also compromised the scene.
“There’s no reason at that point to remove anything,” Rastrelli said. “Don’t look for an ID. Don’t do anything. Leave the scene alone. Just secure it. That’s the job of the first responding officer. Then, of course, once that’s done, they can take a few photographs that show, ‘This is the way I found it and I left it alone.’”
Instead, Rodriguez’s body was promptly sent for an autopsy to the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office.
A ‘hit’ out on his life
The Montevideo Police Department began investigating the case for potential foul play the day Rodriguez was found after receiving a call from the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office.
The medical examiner relayed concerns from the family that the death could possibly be a homicide, citing the hit out on Rodriguez’s life.
Hours after his body was taken away and the death scene was open to the public, officers collected cigarette butts near the scene of his death, which were placed into evidence, according to the police report.
Four individuals interviewed separately told officers the same story: Rodriguez had told them in the days before his death that there was a hit out on his life — and he believed he was going to be killed, according to the police report.
Three people provided law enforcement with the same name of the person who allegedly had the hit out on him. An additional person provided the same story, without a name.
More than one individual provided police with the names of two other people Refugio believed to be likely accomplices.
The Montevideo Police Department did not attempt to make contact with the individuals Refugio claimed had threatened his life, according to the police report.
Schule said in a 2022 interview with Forum News Service that he was not able to say why his department made that choice, stating that he wasn’t the lead investigator.
“I couldn’t answer that for you,” he said.
Schule said the Montevideo Police Department decided to close out the case one month later, after receiving the final summary from the medical examiner’s office.
The medical examiner’s summary
The medical examiner’s final summary takes into account the examination of the body and details from law enforcement related to the death scene and corresponding investigations.
Discrepancies discovered in the police report and medical examiner’s report called into question the accuracy of information provided by the police department to the medical examiner.
The police report filed by the first officer on the scene stated that he removed Rodriguez’s wallet and bag of crystalline substance from his shorts.
The medical examiner’s final summary states that Rodriguez’s wallet, “bag of meth,” cell phone and cigarettes were found nearby his body. That information was provided to the medical examiner by the Montevideo Police Department.
The medical examiner’s final summary also indicates that Refugio was found “partially suspended from a tree beside a walking path by means of a garden hose around his neck.”
There is no indication that Rodriguez was discovered on his knees.
Because of this statement in the medical examiner’s final summary, Rodriguez’s family believed he was found hanging from a tree. They learned during Forum News Service’s 2022 investigation that he had been found on his knees.
No time of death was indicated in the autopsy report.
“In consideration of the known circumstances surrounding his death and the examination of the body, the death is classified as suicide and ascribed to hanging,” the medical examiner’s final report stated.
The question at the center of the BCA investigation is whether the known circumstances were fully investigated — and properly communicated to the medical examiner’s office — by the Montevideo Police Department.
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