MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis man is charged with murder for his alleged connection to an assault that killed a man and left his body in a farming culvert in Dakota County in March.
After a months-long investigation, Ivan Contreras-Sanchez was arrested on Tuesday, Nov. 2 and is now charged with two counts of second-degree murder, according to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. He will make his first court appearance Monday, Nov. 8.
According to the criminal complaint, the victim's family reported him missing in Minneapolis in early April after they hadn't been in contact with him for more than a week. The complaint goes on to say that the family had been told by people at a homeless camp that the victim had been in a fight with another man.
Officials say the victim's body was discovered on April 26, nearly three weeks later, in a farming culvert in Dakota County. Police were able to get a geo-fence search warrant, which allows authorities the ability to search a location for any active mobile devices. According to the criminal complaint, during the search, investigators located a "device" that was connected to Contreras-Sanchez's email address, and showed that the device was also at a Speedway Gas Station in Inver Grove Heights at 7:36 p.m. on March 29, 2021 — the night of the alleged assault.
Investigators with the Dakota County Sheriff's Office were able to obtain "digital evidence" from the gas station showing two vehicles arrive together. The evidence shows two Hispanic men going into the gas station and buying a beverage. An unopened bottle of this beverage was later found near the victim's body.
According to the criminal complaint, additional location history placed Contreras-Sanchez at a residence in north Minneapolis, where a sergeant with the Minneapolis Police Department said they witnessed Contreras-Sanchez working on a vehicle matching the description of the vehicle seen at the gas station. The complaint goes on to say that the sergeant also noted that the interior of the vehicle had been gutted. The sergeant then had the vehicle towed to a forensic lot for examination.
Court documents say that a confidential informant told investigators that a woman had confessed to helping move the victim, adding that the victim had been killed at a house in north Minneapolis on March 29. The complaint says that during a search of the home, officials found what appeared to be blood spatter in the basement on the water heater and on the walls near the stairs. Samples of the spatter confirmed it to be human blood, but it could not determine the source of the blood.
According to the complaint, a woman renting the house at the time of the murder said she was staying with her mother in another residence around the time it occurred, but had heard that the victim had been killed there, and that the victim was killed by an alias Contreras-Sanchez goes by. The woman was also able to identify Contreras-Sanchez when shown a photo.
Contreras-Sanchez was taken into custody on Nov. 2. Court documents say during an interview with authorities, Contreras-Sanchez denied having any knowledge of the murder, but later admitted to driving the vehicle used to transport the victim's body. He also told investigators that he saw multiple people beating up the victim and saw one man hit the victim in the hand with a hammer and another strike him in the head with a pipe. He then said he saw two men carry a "bundle" downstairs, which he believed they put into his vehicle. He then drove to a farm where they took the bundle out of his vehicle, put it into a wheelbarrow and transported it to a culvert. He later added that it was "simple to figure out what happened" what he'd seen.
At the end of the interview, Contreras-Sanchez showed investigators videos on his phone of the victim severely injured. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner later confirmed that the victim had died from blunt force trauma.
