BIG LAKE, Minn. — A Big Lake city councilwoman's 20-year-old son has been charged with second-degree murder in her death.
Rose Johnson was found dead on Thursday in her Big Lake home, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in Sherburne County District Court.
Thursday, July 23, the Sherburne County Sheriff's Office reported that officers responded to a 911 call from a man who said his son, Eric Leif Jordahl, had killed his mother, later identified as Johnson.
According to the criminal complaint, Jordahl's father told dispatchers that when he got home from work, Jordahl told him he had killed Johnson. Officers responded to the home and found Jordahl covered in blood, and a knife on the kitchen table. They found Johnson's body in a lower-level basement bedroom with "obvious facial trauma."
The complaint states that Jordahl told officers he had gone into his mother's bedroom during the night, and she told him to go back to sleep. He told officers that he punched her repeatedly, left the room to get a knife, and stabbed her multiple times, according to the complaint.
The Midwest Forensic Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a homicide.
Johnson was appointed to the Big Lake City Council in January 2019.
"She was a great person who cared about the community of Big Lake and stood up for her beliefs, and always came prepared," fellow council member Paul Knier said of her on Thursday. "You say goodbye, you don't expect that to be the last time you're ever gonna see someone. I guess it's a reminder to all of us to appreciate the people who are in our lives."
Jordahl is scheduled to make a court appearance for a bail hearing at 10:30 a.m. on Monday. He is charged with second-degree murder with intent, not premeditated; and second-degree murder without intent while committing another felony, second-degree assault. Both charges are felonies and carry a maximum sentence of 40 years.
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