JULIE HOLMQUIST ABDUCTION/MURDER CASE

In the early morning hours of July 30, 1998, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Agent Stan Leach received a call from Kittson County Sheriff Ray Hunt. The Sheriff expressed concern over a sixteen-year-old girl who had left her home at approximately 8:30 p.m. on the previous evening to rollerblade on a county road north of Hallock. The girl had intended to be gone for an hour or so and never returned. The Sheriff's Department had done some preliminary checking and was concerned that someone may have abducted the girl, Julie Holmquist.

Agent Leach contacted the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Office in Bemidji and BCA agents were dispatched to the Hallock area to assist the Sheriff's Department. During the day on July 30, 1998, a number of BCA and FBI agents converged on the town. BCA Senior Special Agent Steve Hagenah was assigned to coordinate the inquiry.

The first investigative effort was to extensively canvass the area in which the girl had intended to skate. Investigators systematically approached people who lived along County Road 1, Julie's intended route, asking them if they had seen her. They were also asked if they had seen anyone else along the road. If the person making the observation had been driving, they were asked for a description of their vehicle. Simultaneously reports began to come in from the public about sightings of Julie and/or sightings of other vehicles on County Road 1.

As this information accumulated, the investigators began to plot these observations on a map. In doing so, they were able to chart Julie's progress and also note where the sightings ended.

Based on the grim reality of past experience, investigators were looking for four possible sites:

• A last seen site;
• An abduction site;
• A murder site; and
• A body disposal site.

On the map, the agents plotted ten reported sightings of Holmquist skating north on County Road 1, all between 8:30 and 8:50 p.m. Most of these observations are based on the witness' general impression of the time. In most cases, it was not possible for them to pin down the exact time at which they had seen Julie because they'd had no reason to make note of it.

There was one fairly time-specific report by a person who saw Julie approximately four miles north of Hallock, still skating northbound on County Road 1. This witness was hurrying to get to the Cenex Store in Hallock to buy a lottery ticket before the 9:00 p.m. deadline. Investigators secured the surveillance video tape from the Cenex Station in Hallock for the night of July 29, 1998. With the witness' help, they located him on the tape at Cenex at 8:59 p.m. Considering that he was driving hurriedly and drove directly to Cenex, it is believed that his sighting of Julie would have occurred at approximately 8:50 p.m. or within a few minutes of that time.

After this sighting there were two other citizens who reported seeing Julie. One saw her not far south of a bridge over a small stream about five miles north of Hallock; the other saw her a little further on, approximately 200 yards south of the bridge. It is important to note that in all sightings, Julie was skating northbound on County Road 1. No one saw her north of the bridge. This information led investigators to hypothesize that if Holmquist had been kidnapped the abduction site must be near or north of the bridge.

In addition to sightings of Julie Holmquist, witnesses reported several other observations which investigators now believe are important:

• One witness was driving northbound on County Road 1 when the witness saw Julie. Further along, about 6/10th of a mile north of Julie, the witness saw a gray car stopped along the side of County Road 1. The distance from where the car was stopped to the place ultimately identified as the abduction site is approximately one mile.
• A witness who was on foot near County Road 1, north of the intersection with County Road 4, at approximately 9:00 p.m. on July 29, 1998, reported seeing a "boxy" gray car traveling northbound on County Road 1. He noted that one hubcap on the left side of the car was missing, the trunk was up, the car was driving on the wrong side of the road, and the driver appeared to be turning around looking toward the back seat of the car.

With the canvassing effort, a massive search commenced. Many law enforcement officers and volunteer searchers looked all along County Road 1 and the county roads that cross it. Special attention was paid to the possible abduction area around the bridge. At first the searchers concentrated on looking for Julie, herself. They spent days looking in the long grass, in the ditches, in the field areas along the county roads, and in wooded areas along the general route. Not finding Julie, the search was then directed toward any anomalies along the road. In this effort, every foot of County Road 1, the pavement, the shoulder, and the ditch were searched from Hallock to an area north of County Road 4.

On August 11, 1998, just before dark, searchers found a set of earphones of the sort used with athletic radios and tape players. They were discovered on the east shoulder of County Road 1, a short distance north of the bridge. These earphones were collected and shown to Julie Holmquist's family and friends who reported that they were identical to the ones that Julie had used on her tape player.

With the coming of daylight on the following morning, an inch-by-inch search of the probable abduction site continued. A few feet away from the spot where the earphones were found, investigators found two expended .22 caliber shell casings which they collected. One appeared to have been driven on or stepped on, but otherwise looked to have been fairly freshly deposited at the scene. The other was tarnished and appeared to have been there for some time. Having no suspect's gun to which the shells could be compared, the investigators could not know at this time whether either cartridge was involved in the abduction. They did theorize that it was possible that a gun had been fired, either at Julie or near her with the intention of scaring her into submission.

Also found and collected at this site was a black nylon wrist strap with a metal clip on one end. Subsequent investigation determined that the strap was not an accessory to a tape player such as Holmquist carried. Rather, it was a style supplied with some cell phones.

On August 20, 1998, Julie Holmquist's body was found in a pond at a remote gravel pit north of Lancaster, Minnesota.

• By the condition of her clothing, a motive of sexual assault was presumed.
• Because her rollerblades were still on, it appeared likely that she died fairly soon after the abduction.
• Because of the remote location where the body was left, it seemed strongly possible that the perpetrator took her to that place based on familiarity with the area.

In the pond near the body, the recovery team found Julie's tape player with the headphones missing. While there was behavioral evidence of sexual assault, no biological evidence remained because of the severe state of decomposition of Julie's body.

Buried in the hundreds of leads that came to investigators in the initial part of this case is the name Curtiss Cedergren and information about a car driven by him.

On August 9, 1998, a fourteen-year-old Hallock girl reported that some time prior to Holmquist's abduction, the fourteen-year-old had been rollerblading on County Road 22, when a man driving an older car had slowed down and watched her. She recalled on other occasions having seen the man and the car at the swimming pool in Hallock. By her description of the man and the car, local officers believed that she was describing Curtiss Cedergren.

On August 21, 1998, the day after Julie's body was discovered, the Sheriff's Department received a call from a landowner. He reported that he had discovered a spot on his property where somebody had burned something. A class ring was left in the ashes. A deputy who went out and looked at the burn pile found a class ring that was eventually identified as Curtiss Cedergren's.

In September of 1998, Curtiss Cedergren was interviewed by an investigator and asked about his whereabouts on the night of the Holmquist abduction. He reported that he was in Cavalier, North Dakota, on that evening until about 9:15 p.m. and then had driven to his home in Lancaster, Minnesota. His route, according to his statements in that interview, was County Road #1 to County Road #4 to Lancaster.

On June 23, 2000, the Kittson County Sheriff's Department received a complaint from three teen-aged girls who felt they were being followed by Curtiss Cedergren. They described how, over a three-day period, he had driven behind them with his car in Hallock, parked, and watched them at a beach in Lake Bronson, and made several attempts to speak to them. A deputy contacted Cedergren and warned him to stop following the girls.

On July 21, 2000, BCA Agent Leach and Kittson County Investigator Craig Spilde interviewed Curtiss Cedergren. Cedergren told them that on July 29, 1998, he would have been driving a gray Chevrolet Spectrum. He told the investigators he was familiar with Stinar's Pit, the area where Julie's body had been found. He had, in the past, gone swimming and had attended a party there. He also told them that at the time of Julie's abduction he was living in Lancaster. Investigators checked motor vehicle records and determined that Cedergren had been the registered owner of a 1987 Chevrolet Spectrum, License No. BHV613. The car was a four-door, gray in color.

On July 26, 2000, the investigators spoke with the ex-wife of Curtiss Cedergren. She told them that Curtiss had a pistol and, according to her son, he carried the pistol in his vehicle.

On September 5, 2000, Leach and Spilde spoke with an ex-girlfriend of Cedergren. She recalled seeing what she thought was a pistol in Curtiss' car. She also reported that Curtiss Cedergren had told her that he was on County Road 1 on the night and during the time period when Julie disappeared.

The investigators initiated a trace on the vehicle that had been driven by Cedergren in 1998. They found that he had purchased the vehicle on June 15, 1998, and that on November 26, 1998, had reported hitting a deer. On September 11, 2000, the car, which had been damaged and salvaged, was found at a body shop in Lake of the Woods County. Investigator Spilde looked at the car at that location and noted that it was gray in color and that the left front hubcap was missing.

On September 15, 2000, Investigator Spilde took possession of the car and hauled it back to Kittson County for forensic examination. He noticed that as the car was being transported on a trailer, when crossing a railroad track the car's trunk popped open. He had to secure the trunk with a rope to keep it closed for the remainder of the trip. The car was subsequently processed by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Laboratory. Nothing which could physically link the car to Julie Holmquist was found.

Investigators obtained records for Curtiss Cedergren's cell phone for the period around the time of the abduction of Julie Holmquist. They found that on the night of the abduction, five calls were made from Cedergren's cell phone to a number in Cavalier, North Dakota. This phone number belongs to a woman who was, at that time, Cedergren's girlfriend. Times and duration of calls are as follows:

5:59 p.m. - one minute
6:01 p.m. - fourteen minutes
6:19 p.m. - nine minutes
8:05 p.m. - three minutes
8:31 p.m. - nineteen minutes

Investigators noted that these calls were placed during the time period in which Cedergren had originally told an investigator that he was in Cavalier, North Dakota. They also saw that the calls were made in the cell phone's home area (Minnesota), which includes Hallock. Investigators then spoke to Cedergren's former girlfriend who said that this series of calls was placed when she was breaking off her relationship with Cedergren. The investigators saw that the last call, which would have taken place from 8:31 p.m. to 8:50 pm., corresponds with the time in which a witness reported seeing a gray car sitting along County Road 1, about one mile south of the abduction site. When the call ended at 8:50 p.m., Curtiss Cedergren had just been told by his girlfriend that she wanted nothing more to do with him. Simultaneously Julie Holmquist was skating northbound near the bridge. Approximately ten minutes later, a car similar to Cedergren's, missing a hubcap with an open trunk, was seen north of County Road 4 driving on the wrong side of the road with the driver looking into the back seat area.

Left behind in a spot not far north of where Holmquist was last seen were her earphones, two .22 shell casings, and a wrist strap from a cell phone.

On July 16, 2002, Investigators Leach and Spilde asked Curtiss Cedergren to come in for an interview. He agreed to meet with them at the Kittson County Sheriff's Office. They told Cedergren that he was being questioned regarding the Julie Holmquist abduction/homicide. He was shown a photo of BHV613, the gray 1987 Chevrolet Spectrum previously registered to him. He said that he had been the owner of that car in 1998. Cedergren was asked whether Julie Holmquist had ever been in his car. He stated that she had not. He was told that the car had been processed by forensic experts and trace evidence which had been collected was being sent to the FBI Laboratory for analysis. He was then asked if he would be willing to take a polygraph test. He said that he was willing and Special Agent Leach told him that he would make arrangements for such a test and would contact Cedergren.

During the first week in August, 2002, Special Agent Leach made numerous calls to Cedergren's residence attempting to set up a polygraph test. He was never able to speak to Cedergren. He did leave a number of messages for Cedergren to call him, but his calls were never returned.

On August 8, 2002, Special Agent Leach contacted Investigator Spilde and asked Spilde to go to Cedergren's house and attempt to arrange for a polygraph test.

On August 9, 2002, at approximately 8:20 a.m., Investigator Spilde stopped at Cedergren's house and knocked on the front door. A boy came to the door. Investigator Spilde asked him if Mr. Cedergren was at home. The boy said he would check and left Spilde standing at the front door. Moments later Investigator Spilde heard a shot somewhere behind the house. He ultimately discovered that Curtiss Cedergren, dressed only in a pair of boxer shorts, had apparently gone out the back door of the house while Spilde was at the front door. Cedergren then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a shotgun.

After the death of Cedergren had been properly dealt with, Agent Leach and Kittson County deputies searched Cedergren's residence. In a closet under some clothing they found the disassembled parts of a Ruger Mark II stainless .22 caliber, semi-automatic pistol, Serial No. 221-40628. A trace of this weapon revealed that it was purchased at a hardware store in Roseau, Minnesota, by Curtiss Dale Cedergren on September 12, 1995. The pistol was submitted to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Laboratory for analysis and comparison.

On November 26, 2002, a Bureau of Criminal Apprehension firearms examiner determined that the fresh looking expended .22 caliber shell casing found near the earphones at the presumed abduction site had been fired by the Ruger pistol belonging to Curtiss Cedergren. The old tarnished one had not.

After Curtiss Cedergren's death, an acquaintance of Cedergren's came forward to relate a story to Investigator Spilde. The acquaintance said that some time after the abduction of Julie Holmquist he had been driving into Hallock from the east with Curtiss Cedergren as a passenger. As they passed the billboard with Holmquist's picture the acquaintance indicated the sign and said "Do you think they will ever get the guy that did it?" Cedergren replied "Naw, they will never get him, he'll kill himself first." The acquaintance said that whoever did it would probably get "life in the pen" whereupon Cedergren replied that before he ever went to the pen for life he would blow his head off.

After considering the entire body of information gathered in the four-and-a-half years since the crime, the investigators and prosecuting attorneys have concluded that there is considerable reason to believe that Curtiss Cedergren abducted and murdered Julie Holmquist. Conversely, they have no information that leads them to believe that any other person participated in the crime. It would seem that, with what is known today, after thousands upon thousands of investigative hours have been spent, there is nowhere else to go.