Anniversary of Sjodin’s disappearance brings no closure

FARGO, N.D. – Closure and anniversary are two words that are not in Allan Sjodin’s vocabulary when he talks about the life and death of his daughter.

It was a year ago that University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, 22, disappeared from the parking lot of a Grand Forks shopping mall. Her body was found five months later near Crookston, Minn.

The word anniversary does not work for her father now.

“That’s for happy days and happy times. That’s not what we look at,” he said.

“Every day weighs heavy in our hearts,” said Linda Walker, Sjodin’s mother. “There isn’t one day that we don’t think of her, even from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep.”

Sjodin, of Pequot Lakes, Minn., was last seen leaving her job at a Victoria’s Secret in the mall on Nov. 22. The next day, police told her sorority adviser that something was horribly wrong.

“You never know how serious something is when you’re talking about college students,” recalled adviser Erinn O’Keefe Hakstol. “They said it was something we should take very seriously.”

Later that night, a team of counselors and school officials, including UND President Charles Kupchella, met with members at the sorority house. It was a highly emotional meeting, Hakstol said.

“There were a lot of questions and a lot of fear,” she said.

Their worst fears would be realized the next spring, after months of unsuccessful searches by law enforcement officers, National Guard units and other volunteers Soon after the snow melted, on April 17, Sjodin’s body was discovered in a ravine near Crookston, where the man suspected of killing her lived with his mother.

Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 51, is accused in federal court of kidnapping resulting in Sjodin’s death. Rodriguez has pleaded not guilty. He remains jailed in Fargo, awaiting trial, and has not returned phone calls seeking comment.

Federal prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty if Rodriguez is found guilty.

Sjodin’s disappearance was first reported on a Saturday night to university police, who discovered her car in the Columbia Mall parking lot. The case was turned over to Grand Forks city police the following morning.

“Is it unusual for us to have reports of missing people, especially college students? No,” recalled Grand Forks Police Lt. Dennis Eggebraaten. “But by Sunday afternoon, this was getting to be unusual.”

The case would quickly gain national attention. Daily press briefings drew dozens of reporters, wondering how Sjodin could disappear from a mall parking lot during the busy shopping season.

“The media interest really mushroomed when we developed our suspect,” Eggebraaten said. Rodriguez was a convicted sex offender who was released from prison six months before Sjodin was abducted.

Bob Heales, a private investigator who has a home near Pequot Lakes, heard about the case two days after Sjodin disappeared. He became a family spokesman after leading a number of searches.

“Still, a year later, there’s barely a waking moment that I don’t think of Dru,” Heales said. “She has helped me to try and do good things over the past year.”

The Sjodin family and Heales have helped in searches for Erika Dahlquist, whose remains were found near Brainerd, Minn., in May, and LeeAnna Warner, who disappeared near Chisholm, Minn., more than 17 months ago.

“I think that’s part of what we are about, to try and make some sense out of it,” Allan Sjodin said. “Hopefully we can help people with the endeavors of daily living and continue Dru’s legacy.”

The one-year mark of Sjodin’s disappearance is a day that many family members have been dreading, Heales said.

Hakstol said many of the sorority members have “come to terms with the events of the last year” and turned their efforts toward Sjodin’s favorite projects. That includes a charitable event to help abused women and children.

“They know they can be Dru’s voice now,” Hakstol said.

Earlier this fall, members put up a large framed picture of Sjodin, featuring handwritten messages from her friends, in the entry of the sorority house.

Looking back on the investigation, Eggebraaten said it featured unprecedented cooperation among local, state and federal authorities.

“A lot of people didn’t care if they were paid or not,” he said.

In Fargo, U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson plans a meeting with attorneys in the case Monday, perhaps to set a trial date for Rodriguez, U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley said.

“We’ve done our part,” Eggebraaten said. “Now it’s in their hands.”