BREWSTER, Minnesota — A small town of 473 people in southwestern Minnesota took center stage on national television Friday night, making an appearance on a Dateline NBC episode that investigated a 2015 murder case.
The death of Janette Pigman-Kruse five years ago rocked Brewster, Minnesota, located about nine miles from Worthington in Nobles County.
“It was a very trying time for a small community in greater Minnesota,” said Radio Works News Director Justine Wettschreck, who has covered the area for years. “[The community] really had a lot of respect for Janette Pigman-Kruse. She was really beloved.”
In March 2019, a grand jury indicted Jan’s husband, Chris, on murder charges, leading to a lengthy trial in early 2020. He was found not guilty in February.
The Nobles County Attorney’s Office and Nobles County Sheriff did not respond to KARE 11’s requests for comment, but the Dateline episode presented many of their arguments. Prosecutors alleged that Chris Kruse, who called 911 the night of his wife’s death, shot Jan in bed without rendering medical aid. They also said that Chris may have been motivated by a life insurance policy that could help buy a resort home in Northern Minnesota’s Spider Lake, which they said the couple argued about financially. The name of the Dateline episode was “Far From Spider Lake.”
Many family members, including some on Jan’s side, remained unconvinced by the prosecutors’ arguments. According to Wettschreck, a significant number of people in the community supported Chris Kruse during the trial and did not believe he killed Jan in 2015.
“Every day that courtroom, that galley, was just packed,” Wettschreck said. “There was actually cheering in the court room [after the verdict], there were so many people in there supporting Chris.”
Jan’s sister, Kay, who was interviewed in the Dateline piece, told KARE 11 that she hopes the episode will prompt law enforcement to find “the real killer.”
Defense attorney Tom Hagen said the possibility of an alternate suspect – the Kruses’ daughter’s boyfriend – convinced the jury to find his client not guilty and also may have caught the interest of NBC’s Dateline crew.
“The evidence itself didn’t line up. There’s another individual that wasn’t questioned,” Hagen said, “and it left a lot of doubt in the jurors’ minds.”
Hagen held a socially-distant, drive-in watch party and took questions on Facebook Live during the episode on Friday evening.
KARE 11 asked him what he might say to viewers who, upon being introduced to the case for the very first time, might question the jury’s verdict. In response, Hagen said the Dateline piece can only capture two hours worth of content, as opposed to the full trial.
“Twelve people in the community, who sat for three weeks, found a ‘not guilty’ verdict in 12 hours,” Hagen said. “That’s quick, and given that fact, I don’t think there should be a question in anyone’s mind.”
It remains unclear how law enforcement will proceed from here. Constitutionally, it is not legal for prosecutors to charge Chris Kruse for murder again.
“I watched him walk down the hallway and he looked exhausted,” Wettschreck said, recalling the day Kruse was found not guilty. “And, he also looked like someone had picked a two-ton yoke off of his shoulders.”