FARIBAULT, Minn — Murder charges have been filed against a woman after a 76-year-old man was found dead inside his Faribault home earlier this month.
Prosecutors filed second-degree murder charges on Friday against 32-year-old Arlene Theresa Bell after police found a deceased man, later identified as Gary Lehmeyer, inside his home on Feb. 5 while following up on a welfare check. Prosecutors say Lehmeyer had been stabbed several time, strangled, bound at his ankles and wrapped in several blankets, sheets and a heated mattress pad.
In a press release from the Rice County Attorney's Office, Bell told police she was living with Lehmeyer and was in the home when she heard something fall to the floor in another room. When she went to check out the bedroom, she said she noticed red bullets at Lehmeyer's feet but admitted to not seeing a gun. She told police that she had gotten scared, adding that Lehmeyer wouldn't let her leave the room. The two then got into a fight.
During the fight, prosecutors say Bell stabbed Lehmeyer repeatedly and used the knife to "saw at his wrists." Bell told investigators that Lehmeyer attempted to strangle her, threw a dehumidifier at her and choked her with its cord.
After cutting the cord, Bell said she saw Lehmeyer "bleeding profusely" and was "spitting blood" at her just prior to his death. Prosecutors say she later bound his feet together with the cord and wrapped his body in fear that he would regain consciousness.
Bell said she then took his van and headed south towards the Mexican border when she was stopped by an Iowa State Trooper west of Des Moines. The trooper said she looked as if she was on drugs, so he placed her under arrest and searched the vehicle. It was at that point the trooper noticed the rear seats were removed and that there was a mattress on the floor. The trooper also found a glass pipe containing methamphetamine residue, a small bag of syringes and Narcan. Bell told troopers she had used the meth a couple days prior.
Law enforcement later learned that the van had belonged to Lehmeyer and she's now currently being held in an Iowa jail on one motor vehicle theft charge. Law enforcement originally called Lehmeyer's death "suspicious" but later classified it as a homicide after saying "they observed some things (inside the home) that caused them concern about the welfare of the occupant."
Rice County Attorney Brian Mortenson said he expects to begin the extradition process in the coming days, according to a press release.
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