BUFFALO, Minn. - Murder charges have been filed against three men in the violent death of a teenaged mother in Wright County.
The body of 19-year-old Cheyenne Lee Clough was found laying outside Crow Springs Park last Wednesday, barely clinging to life after being badly beaten and shot multiple times. She died of her injuries three days later at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale.
An autopsy revealed that she had been shot four times with a .22 caliber weapon, with wounds to the back of her head, her neck and shoulder.
A criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Wright County Court charges alleged triggerman 21-year-old Shawn T. Benson of Buffalo with second-degree murder. Justin Jensen, age 28, of Maple Lake, and 26-year-old Edward V. Zelko of Buffalo are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. The Wright County Attorney's office said they are planning to bring this case before a grand jury for possible first-degree murder charges. A date for that has not been set.
Two women arrested with the three defendants, 33-year-old Natasha Brandenburger and 19-year-old Callie Anderson, were not charged Wednesday for roles in Clough's death. They did appear in court Wednesday on lesser crimes, and could eventually face charges in connection with Clough's death.
Investigators allege that late in the evening of May 31 or early June 1, Clough and the defendants were at a residence in Maple Lake when they began arguing about one of them calling a bounty hunter and having Clough's boyfriend arrested on an outstanding warrant.
Brandenburger, who was at the residence, tells authorities that Clough threatened to call law enforcement and have Anderson arrested on her own outstanding warrant. After a physical altercation between Clough and Brandenburger, Jensen allegedly ordered that Clough be killed. Investigators believe he provided a .22 pistol stolen during a residential burglary to Benson and Zelko to carry out the job.
Benson and Zelko allegedly got in a vehicle under the guise of taking her home, but instead went to Crow Springs Park, where nearby residents reported hearing a woman screaming and several gunshots around 3 a.m. Brandenburger told detectives that two men returned to the Maple Lake home shortly afterwards, and that Benson had indicated to Jensen that he had murdered Clough.
When questioned by investigators working the case, Jensen reportedly admitted ordering Benson and Zelko to kill Clough, and told them he had placed the murder weapon in Zelko's vehicle.
Following the murder, the suspects fled to International Falls, where Jensen, Benson and Brandenburger were taken into custody. Zelko was pulled over and arrested in Todd County.
On Tuesday authorities in Koochiching County charged 26-year-old Thomas Forrest Nicholson of International Falls with one felony count of aiding an offender to avoid arrest.
A family friend tells KARE 11 that Cheyenne Clough was the youngest of three sisters, but that she was an old soul who took care of others before herself. She said Clough loved her 3-year-old son more than anything in the world.
Wright County Attorney Tom Kelly says those involved in the murder are part of the area drug culture, involved in synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and LSD. He says the suspects were apprehended as they tried to flee to Canada.