November 24, 2025 • 52 mins
Chris Lang was on the phone to his girlfriend as she headed to her parked car at the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks, North Dakota, one evening in 2003. They chatted about their day but then her voice trailed off. She uttered “oh my god” before the line went dead…
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Okay, I'm calling one of my actually, my roommates both
most of the on like a couple of hours ago.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
M Ground Forks in North Dakota is a city shaped
by both natural beauty and natural disaster. Founded in eighteen seventy,
this prairie community grew from a humble frontier trading post
into a thriving university town. It was home to the
University of North Dakota and almost sixty thousand residents by
(01:12):
the early two thousands. The city had weathered the devastating
flood of nineteen ninety seven, which forced the evacuation of
fifty thousand people and left much of downtown underwater, but
Grand Forks rebuilt stronger and more resilient. By two thousand
and three, life had returned to normal rhythms in Grand Forks.
The Columbia Mall had become the heart of the community's
(01:34):
retail life, a sprawling complex that opened in nineteen seventy
eight and served not just the city but shoppers from
across the region. On any given day, you'd found families
browsing the anchor stores, teenagers gathering at the food court,
and workers grabbing lunch between shifts. The mall's vast parking
lot buzzed with activity, a safe cars under the endless
(01:57):
Dakota sky. But on one cold November evening in two
thousand and three, that familiar scene would become the backdrop
for something far more sinister. The temperature had dropped well
below freezing, and a bitter wind swept across the parking
lot as shoppers hurried to their vehicles, breath visible in
the frigid air. Among them was a young woman making
(02:18):
her way across the asphalt towards her car. She had
her cell phone pressed to her ear as she spoke
with her boyfriend. Their conversation was routine, the comfortable chatter
of two people who talked every single day. She was
telling him about her day, about heading home, about the cold,
but then suddenly her voice changed. She said, oh my God,
(02:39):
in a panic tone. Then the line went dead. Drucia
Dane was born on the twenty six of September nineteen
(03:01):
eighty one in this quiet town of Pequot Lakes in Minnesota.
She was the daughter of Alan Shedane and Linda Walker,
and from the beginning, Drew radiated at warmth that seemed
to draw people in. She had an older brother Sven,
and the two were inseparable. More than just siblings, they
were best friends. Sven would later recall, she had that
(03:22):
ability to attract people. People just loved who she was.
We were both extroverted, but she had this smile, this
way of leaning in when she talked to you, that
made you feel like you'd known her your whole life.
Although Alan and Linda's marriage eventually came to an end,
it never fractured the family. They remained close friends, even
attending dinners together after they remarried. That sense of harmony
(03:46):
in love was something that Drew carried with her into
every corner of her own life. As a child, she
was spontaneous and endlessly kind. She was a kind of
girl who would sit at the kitchen table making little
cards and drawings for her friends and family just to
brighten their day. Her artistic strake earned her the nickname Doodles,
while others affectionately called her Drowsy. At high school, Drew's
(04:08):
energy and spirit shawn even brighter. She excelled academically, becoming
an honor student, and her classmates crowned her homecoming queen.
But she wasn't just the picture perfect student. She was
also a dedicated athlete with the love for basketball, volleyball,
and golf. By the time Drew graduated in two thousand,
she had already built a reputation as someone who could
(04:30):
balance grace, intelligence, and athleticism without ever losing her dawn
to earth nature. She went on to study graphic design
at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. There
she joined the Gama Phoebeta sorority. One of her sorority sisters, Randy,
said of her, even if she didn't know you, she'd
give you a smile. Randy admitted the Drews beauty was
(04:52):
the kind that might have intimidated others, but it didn't.
She explained, she was one of those girls you wanted
to hate, but you just couldn't. Another friend, Odo van
Hoff remembered how quickly Drew connected with people. She said,
you could get to know her instantly. You could talk
to her about anything. While balancing her classes, dre report
(05:13):
herself into causes that mattered. Through her sorority, she worked
with underprivileged teens, helped kindergarteners and first graders learned to read,
and raised money for organizations such as the American Diabetes Association.
She even volunteered for events that raised awareness about violence
against women and children. Drew also worked two jobs, one
(05:35):
at a Victoria's Secret store in the Columbia Mall and
another as a waitress at a local spot called El Rocco.
Somehow she managed to carry a full course load, give
her time to others, and still make space for joy.
She loved learning, always eager to ask questions, always curious
print production, electronic publishing. Anything that allowed her to bland
(05:57):
art with technology fascinated her. She even interned with the
university's aviation program, which gave her the chance to travel.
By the spring of two thousand and three, Drew was
twenty two years old and on the cusp of finishing
her degree. She had been set to graduate in May,
but when she learned of a special opportunity, a photography
(06:17):
class that would take her to Australia, she chose to
delay her graduation until August. At the time, Drew lived
off campus with her close friend Meg Murphy. Her days
were filled with lectures, studying, work, and volunteer projects, but
she always found time for the people who mattered the most.
Among them was her boyfriend Chris Lang. Drew had met
(06:39):
Chris the previous summer in her hometown, where he had
taken a seasonal job. Chris was from the Twin Cities area.
Unlike so many others, he had been drawn to Drew's smile,
but it was more than that. Chris recalled how Drew
made him feel seen, valued, important. He later said she
was just a great example of somebody raised by a wonderful,
(07:00):
loving family, and for Drew, the feelings were mutual. She
told friends that she might have met the man she
was going to marry. She could see a future with Chris,
but Drew had no way of knowing that she wouldn't
live to see a future with anybody. It was an
(07:26):
ordinary Saturday afternoon on November twenty second, two thousand and three,
at the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The
holiday shopping season was already beginning to stir. Inside the
Victoria's Secret Store, Drew Shdaine was finishing her shift. She
was known for her bright smile behind the counter, but
at around four o'clock she clocked out and slipped into
(07:48):
the cool air of the early evening. Before heading home,
Drew stopped at Marshall Fields, a department store just across
from where she worked. She picked out a new purse,
patted the register, and then walked back across the parking
lot towards her car and nineteen ninety four old mobile Cutlass.
Somewhere along that walk, Drew's phone rang. On the other
(08:11):
end of the line was her boyfriend, Chris. The two
shatted casually. Drew told him that she was heading to
her car, but then there was silence. Chris said her
name a few times, confused. That's when he heard her
voice again, quick and sharp as she said okay, okay,
Then just a breath later, oh my god, then the
(08:35):
line went dead. Chris stared at his phone. He tried
to call Drew back. Each time it just rang and rang.
Drew never answered. Worried, Chris reached out to Drew's roommate,
asking her to let him know when Drew got home,
but she never came back. Ours passed. Chris's anxiety grew heavier,
(08:56):
and then another phone call. It was Drew's number, really
flooded him as he picked up, but there was no
voice on the other end of the line. All he
could hear was static and the muffled sounds of buttons
being pressed. By then, Drew should have been starting her
evening shift at Al Roccu, the local bar where she
worked part time, but Drew never showed up. Now Chris's
(09:20):
worry turned to fear. Drew wasn't the kind of person
to ignore her phone. She wasn't the kind to just vanish.
He called her friends, hoping that somebody had seen her,
but nobody had. He in her roommate, Meg then called
nine one one.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I'm calling one of my actually, my roommates was most
to be all like a couple hours ago.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
The search for Drew began immediately. Detectives knew that the
first hours after a disappearance were critical. With Drew's abandoned
phone calls in her sudden silence, they quickly suspected the
worst that Drew had been abducted. Their first stop was
the Columbia Mall. Her automobile was still there in the
parking lot. The passenger door was unlocked. A shopping bag
(10:17):
from marshall Field sat inside the front seat, untouched. But
behind the car, detectives found something that stopped them in
their tracks. It was a black nylon sheathe marked with
the Words tool shop. It belonged to a folding lock
blade knife. It was a small clue, but it painted
a grim picture. Drew had made it safely back to
(10:39):
her car, and then something happened. Detectives pulled security footage
from inside the mall. Drew could be seen walking through
Victoria's Secret and later at Marshall Fields. She was alone
and nobody appeared to be following her, but outside the
cameras were sparse the parking lot offered little hell. Investigators
(11:01):
turned to the strange second call, the one that Chris
had received ours later with nothing, but the static celtar
data showed that the call pinged off atar near Fisher And, Minnesota,
around twenty five miles from Grand Forks, and for nearly
twenty four rs, druce phone remained in that area, but
Tree had no reason to be there, and if she
(11:23):
wasn't in her own car, it meant that somebody else
had taken her there. Detective Mike Sholes explained, it's not
uncommon for people to go missing for a variety of reasons,
but certain characteristics of this case demand immediate attention. So
in all points, bullet And went out. Law enforcement agencies
across the region were notified.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
The U. S.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Border Patrol joined the effort, deploying aircraft to search from above.
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Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. On
the ground, deputies from Polk County and Grand Forks County, University, Police,
and even the FBI coordinated search efforts. They began in Fisher,
sweeping in eight mile radius around Fisher's Landing, a small
riverside community on the Red River lined with woodland and marshland.
(13:35):
Bloodhounds traced sends along the water's edge, their handlers pushing
into the dense underbrush ATVs roared down dirt tracks where
cars couldn't go. Searchers spread out across farmland, abandoned buildings,
and roadside ditches. We're going to find this girl, Officer
Trent s Sheckler told reporters that were gathered at the scene. Meanwhile,
(13:58):
Drew's face filled the media. Flowers went up across North
Dakota and Minnesota. News broadcasts describe her in careful detail
the day she vanished, who had been wearing black slacks,
black loafers, and a pink and purple v neck blouse
over it. She wore a black blay as her style jacket,
and she carried a small black handbag. But despite the urgency,
(14:20):
the days dragged on without any answers. Detectives widened the search.
Volunteers joined in, coming through back roads, drainage, ditches, and fields.
Lieutenant Byron Sever voiced what everyone was thinking. We're going
to search every inch of the ditches. You don't know
where she might be at. You just hope for the best,
(14:41):
but every minute is precious mean. While Drew's family issued
a plea for help, offering a twenty thousand dollar reward
for her return, her mother Linda, spoke through tears, she's
very responsible. This is totally out of character for her.
But as each day passed, the hope of finding Drew
safegrewed dimm What began as a regular Saturday had turned
(15:03):
into a nightmare that now stretched across two states, and
as the search widened, so too did the questions, who
had taken Drew Shadeen and where was she now? At
the University of North Dakota, the mood was heavy. By
(15:26):
Monday morning, the story of Drew's disappearance had spread across
the campus. Students whispered to one another in hallways asking
the same question, did you hear what happened to Drew?
Drew had been so well known, so present, that the
news felt unreal. She wasn't just another face in the
lecture hall. She was the person who smiled at you
(15:47):
in passing, who leaned in when she talked to you,
like you were already friends. Brae Hearing, a junior, tried
to put it into words. You hear about this stuff
on the news, but it doesn't hit home because you
don't know a person who was abducted. When you can
put a face to the name and picture her sitting
in class, it's strange. Her sorority sisters hung a sign
(16:09):
that read Pray for Drew. The university announced counseling for students,
and that night, around three hundred and fifty people crowded
into the Christus Rex Lutheran campus, sent there for a
vigil Candles flickered in the dim room as voices rose
in prayer. But beneath that grief there was fear. It
(16:30):
hadn't been midnight in some deserted alley when Drew vanished.
It was broad daylight, five o'clock on a Saturday evening
in a busy mall car park. Whoever had taken Drew
was brazen, and that meant they could do it again.
Drew's friends insisted she had no reason to be near Fisher,
in Minnesota, where her cell phone had last pink. Her
(16:52):
family said that she didn't know a soul there. Her
friend Adam Shotts commented, she just wouldn't take off without
letting anybody know. She's a great person. I don't know
why anyone would want to do anything to hurt her.
The shock rippled beyond the university across Grand Forks Fair
translated into action. Seals of pepper spray stun guns and
(17:14):
other self protection items exploded. It's beyond belief, said Jason
Schultz at Home of Economy. He said that they normally
sell some when college is back in season, but they'd
sold eight years worth in just ten days. Meanwhile, the
search around Fisher continued The town itself was little more
(17:35):
than farmland, woods and the winding Red River, a quiet
place that was now transformed into the center of a
desperate man hunt. Hundreds of volunteers poured into help. People
were bossed in from Grand Forks every hour, braving the
biting cold. Drew's family searched alongside them, trudging through snow drifts,
(17:56):
refusing to stop, but the elements worked against them. Temperatures plunged,
the wind slicing so sharply that it felt like ten
below zero. Still, volunteers were on their hands and knees
combing frozen ground for the smallest clue. Investigators warned that
the ping from Drew's cell phone didn't necessarily mean that
(18:16):
she'd been in fissure at all. Sergeant Michael Hedlund explained,
it could have been someone driving down the road and
throwing the phone out the window. We don't know she's
been here. We know the cell phone has been here. Still,
the search pressed on the perimeter widened, reaching out to
surrounding towns. Among them was Crookston, a small city twelve
(18:39):
miles away, and on the twenty fifth of November, detectives
found something beneath the Highway seventy five by pass Bridge
lay a discarded shoe. Drew's family identified it immediately it
belonged to Drew. The discovery brought no comfort, only dread.
Two days later, as Thanksgiving approached, Drew's family and investigators
(19:03):
renewed their play for information. Her father, Alan said, were
overwhelmed by the generosity and the support of the Grand
Forks community. There is in our hearts and our thoughts
and prayers. We would like to have her home for
a Thanksgiving reunion. But Thanksgiving came and went. While most
students returned home, some of Drew's closest friends stayed behind,
(19:25):
refusing to leave while she remained missing. Her family launched
a website, found drew dot com, which featured her photographs,
details of her abduction, and the number for the tip line.
They also raised the reward fund dramatically, up to one
hundred and forty thousand dollars for her safe return. Detectives
now turned to another pressing question, who could have wanted
(19:48):
the hurt Drew. By all accounts, she had no enemies.
She was kind and welcoming. Nobody could think of anybody
who would wish her harm. But then, as investigators began
sp speaking with her co workers. One detail caught their attention,
a victorious secret. Somebody had called the store in recent weeks.
(20:09):
The caller had a foreign accent. He'd asked to speak
to Dry directly. The call had been harassing in nature.
Detectives began to dig deeper. They decided to come through
the sex offender Registry for the area, a routaining but
critical step in cases like this. It didn't take long
before one name leapt off the page. He was local,
(20:33):
he was high risk, and his PAS suggested he was
capable of far worse than harassment. Alphonso Rodriguez Junior was
born on the eighteenth of February nineteen fifty three, the
second oldest of five children to a family of migrant workers.
(20:57):
His father, Alphonso Senior, had only a third grade education,
and he spoke Spanish. His mother, Lauris, had attended school
only until the fourth grade, but she taught herself to
Reid and speak English. For fifteen years, the family moved
back and forth between Texas and the Red River Valley
before settling in Crookston in Minnesota. Both parents worked long,
(21:19):
grueling ours in the fields, leaving little time for the children,
Rodriguez had a difficult start in life. He was small, fussy,
and sickly. He couldn't tolerate breast milk, and doctors advised
his mother to feed him rice water instead. By four
months old, he was on the verge of starvation and
(21:39):
diagnosed with failure to thrive. That early fragility seemed to
shadow him throughout his life. He never learned to read
or out properly, and struggled to meet basic developmental milestones.
While his family was hard working, they were plagued by
poverty and a range of physical and mental health challenges.
Rodriguez himself would later be diagnosed with depression, diabetes, hand tremmers,
(22:04):
and chemical dependency. Dolores described him as different, quiet, withdrawn
out of step with the rest of the world. Once
she worked in the fields, she would bring the children along,
leaving them to play in the ditches. His sister, Sylvia
recalled chasing frogs into tunnels and hiding from the crop
dusting plains, whose chemicals sometimes landed on their skin and
(22:28):
left a sticky residue. By the age of five, Rodriguez
and his siblings were sent to a migrant children's camp
while their parents worked. It was here that the first
sexual abuse occurred, perpetrated by an older female. Sylvia later
recounted witnessing the assault. Not long after, a man who
rented their home forced Rodriguez and Sylvia into an outhouse
(22:52):
and coerced them into fondling him. Rodriguez had tried to
protect his cyst there, but even at such a young
age that trauma began to shape him, and the abuse
didn't stop. At age six, Rodriguez was molested by a
college aged woman at a church camp. The next year,
a teenage boy sexually assaulted him. The repeated trauma, combined
(23:15):
with the childhood of neglect, left deep scars that would
follow him into his adulthood. By age nine, the family
had relocated to Croxton and Minnesota. Dolores worked evening shifts
in a restaurant kitchen, leaving the children largely to their
own devices. Their father arrived home late and was physically abusive,
frequently beating Rodrigurez and calling him stupid. In response, Rodriguez
(23:40):
often retreated further into himself. He self medicated with alcohol
and drugs, including acid, hash, and marijuana, and he scavenged
for food and entertainment. At the local dump school was
said to be another battlefield. He walked with a limp,
one leg shorter than the other, and his hands shook
form tremors. He was an easy target for the bullies,
(24:03):
who kicked, pushed, and mocked him relentlessly. One cruel episode
involved classmates threatening to paint him with white paint because
of the color of his skin. Rodriguez had few friends
and often sat on the sidelines watching the other children play.
His younger siblings quickly surpassed him in school, and his
(24:23):
brother Paco later admitted he was embarrassed by him by
every measure. He was an outsider, small, fragile, lonely, and
haunted by the hardships and abuse of his early years.
It was a childhood marked by deprivation, cruelty, and isolation,
one that would later leave its shadow on the choices
he made as an adult and the crimes that he
(24:46):
would commit. By the time Alfonso Rodriguez Junior reached the
age of eighteen, the first cracks in his violent trajectory
had already begun to appear. In nineteen seventy four, he
(25:07):
was arrested for kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women at
knife point. His methods were opportunistic but terrifyingly calculated. His
first victim had agreed to give him a ride home,
Trusting a stranger's polite demeanor, Rodriguez directed her to a
secluded driveway. Then he grabbed her by the throat, pulled
(25:27):
her into the back of the car, and attempted to
rape her. Just a month later, he found another woman
stranded outside a theater and offered to help her start
her car. When she accepted, he forced his way into
her vehicle, drove her into a remote area, threatened her
with a knife, and then sexually assaulted her. After these attacks,
(25:47):
Rodriguez was sent to the State Security Hospital in Saint Peter, Minnesota. There,
he revealed to a psychologist that before the assaults, he
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promo code morbidology ten. The assessment painted a troubling picture.
He was diagnosed with an alcoholic personality disorder with some paranoid,
schizoid and antisocial tendencies. Rodriguez himself admitted he had sexual
aggression issue, although he claimed he could control his impulses,
(28:04):
but his past actions suggested it otherwise. On the ninth
of April nineteen eighty, he was released on a pass
to his parents' home in Croxton. Only four days later,
he approached a woman for directions. When she refused to cooperate,
he grabbed her arm and threatened get in the car
or I'm going to kill you. She struggled, and in response,
(28:25):
Rodriguez stabbed her in the arm AND's stomach. By some
stroke of luck, she managed to escape. Rodriguez was convicted
of kidnapping and aggravated assault. During a sentencing hearing, he
requested a return to Saint Peter rather than be sent
to prison. He told the court, well, I guess I
will always need treatment of some kind and I would
(28:46):
benefit from it. The judge told him, I don't know
whether it's emotional or whatever it is, but it's something
that you apparently have no control over. Until such time
as there is some medical proof, mister Rodriguez, that saw
something has taken place with you that will prevent you
from acting out in this way. You should not be
allowed to roam free in our society. Rodriguez was sentenced
(29:10):
to twenty three years in prison, yet in those decades
behind bars, his treatment was minimal. He received chemical dependency counseling,
but he refused programs designed to address his sexual aggression.
Prison offered structure but no real rehabilitation, leaving the underlying
pathology unaddressed. Between the ages of eighteen and fifty, Rodriguez
(29:33):
would spend all but approximately three and a half years incarcerated.
By the early two thousands, he had become all too
familiar with the routines and rules of the penal system,
but freedom remained an alien concept even he feared it.
He confided to a prison psychologist, I want to be
locked up, but not locked up. This revealed the anxious
(29:55):
tension that would follow him into the outside world. His
family was also on it easy They contacted the Minnesota
Department of Corrections to voice their concerns over his eminent
release and lack of supervision. His sister called local police
repeatedly and pleaded with them to monitor him. She feared
that he would strike again, but Sergeant Jerry Moreno informed
(30:19):
her that once a person had served their sentence, there
were no ties to probation, no system in place to
enforce oversight. The Department of Corrections had the option to
civilly commit Rodriguez given the risk he pose, but they
chose not to their own experts had warned that his
untraded sexual aggression, combined with a return to an environment
(30:42):
lacking structure, could actually encourage further criminal behavior. Yet prison
officials concluded that there was little in his conduct during
incarceration to suggest imminent danger. So in May of two
thousand and three, just six months before dru Shadin would
be abducted, Rodriguez was released. He moved into his mother
(31:05):
Dolores's home on Adams Street in Crooston, a tidy, quiet
neighborhood where families had lived for decades. Dolores, who had
once labored in the fields alongside her husband and children,
was now well known in the community. She was polite,
soft spoken, and always shared homemade Tomali's with her neighbors.
(31:26):
Her husband had passed away, leaving her to manage the
household alone, with Alphonso's presence now a stark reminder of
the past. Rodriguez's release came with conditions. As a Level
three sex offender, he was required to register with law
enforcement for ten years, reporting his address, vehicle, and employment.
(31:48):
Neighbors initially noticed little out of the ordinary. Alissa Cardinal,
who lived nearby, recalled, you never saw him unless he
was mowing the lawn or trimming the plants in the front.
Appearances were deceptive. Behind the quiet, methodical routines of his days,
Rodriguez carried a history of unchecked aggression, devian impulses, and
(32:10):
violent urges. For decades. His life had been a cycle
of abuse, trauma, and institutionalization, leaving him ill equipped to
navigate the world safely. The calm he projected in the
neighborhood masked the danger simmering beneath, a danger that just
months later would erupt with devastating consequences. Once detectives discovered
(32:45):
that Alphonso Rodriguez Junior had been in the Vicinityond the
day that Drew vanished, he quickly became the focus of
their investigation. His history of abducting women he didn't know
made him a person of interest, and investigators were determan
to learn exactly where he had been that afternoon. Rodriguez
had been scheduled to work hanging drywall at a construction
(33:07):
site in Macintosh, Minnesota, but he hadn't shown up. Detectives
contacted him and requested he come in for an interview.
They asked him to account for his whereabouts on the
evening of November twenty second, the day that Drew disappeared.
Rodriguez initially claimed he had been at the cinema watching
Once Upon a Time in Mexico from four point thirty
(33:30):
eight to seven thirty pm at a theater not too
far from the mall. He said he had stopped for
a quick meal at McDonald's before heading back to his
home in Crooston. On the surface, it seemed like a
plausible alibi, but when detectives checked the story quickly unraveled.
The movie he claimed to have seen that day hadn't
been playing in any Grand Forks theaters. When confronted with
(33:54):
this discrepancy, Rodriguez offered no explanation.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Tell us that you into the movie theater, but that
doesn't really pair out.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
We're having trouble finding me on.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
The McDonald's videotape, to think maybe you were acted.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Somewhere else and.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
All he said was that he wasn't at the mall,
but detectives had footage of him inside the mall. Authority
soon obtained a search warrant for Rodriguez's car, a two
thousand and two Mercury Sable sedan. The vehicle appeared clean,
almost meticulously so, suggesting somebody had recently attempted to remove evidence.
(34:34):
Inside the spare tire well, detectives found a black folding
lock blade knife, the type that would normally have a
tool shop sheath, but there was no sheath to be found.
The knife was also found lying in a pool of
household cleaner, as if somebody had tried to scrub it.
Spotless bloodstains were discovered. On the back seat near the
(34:56):
rear passenger window and in two other areas. DNA testing
confirmed the worse. The blood and the knife contained Drew's DNA,
with the evidence minding. Rodriguez was charged with kidnapping an
order to be held on five million dollar bill. In court,
his lawyers argued that he wanted to remain behind bars
(35:17):
at least temporarily, citing concerns for his own safety. The
arrest brought a chilling reality to Drew's family and friends
hoped that she might still be alive plummeted. Her cousin
Jason Nelson expressed, we're human, so we're scared when we
learned of his history, But his history is also that
he is not escalated to murder, so that leaves the
(35:40):
family with hope that drystol out there. Winter tightened its
grip on the region. The bitter cold and deep snow
forced volunteer searchers to step back, leaving the National Guard
to continue the efforts in humvies and insulated suits. Rob Keller,
a spokesman for the North Dakota Army National Guard, said
(36:02):
cold weather does make the job harder. One of the
things we don't want to have happen is one of
our soldiers get injured. By the twenty seventh of December,
Drow's family had raised almost sixty thousand dollars to support
search efforts, a testament to the community's determination and dedication.
But beyond the immediate search, the case sparked broader conversations
(36:24):
about public safety and legal protections. By January, lawmakers and
prosecutors began examining the state's laws regarding repeat sex offenders.
Cass County State's Attorney Birch Burdick explained the significance of
the case. I don't think there's a prosecutor anywhere that
isn't aware of what's going on in the Dru shadaiin
(36:45):
matter and hasn't had an opportunity to think about what
that means in their own community. The focus was on
North Dakoda's nineteen ninety seven law, which allowed people deemed
sexually dangerous by at least two experts to be held
in definitely in the state hospital. In Jamestown. District judges
preside over these civil commitment hearings, which can be initiated
(37:08):
either before or after a criminal conviction. State penitentiary officials
often evaluate sex offenders before release, assessing the risk they
might pose. Since the laws enactment, twelve offenders had been
committed under this provision. The shitting case prompted prosecutors in
larger North Dakota cities to consider recommending more prisoners for
(37:30):
civil commitment. By March, Drew's family, friends, and supporters appeared
before the Senate Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee and
urged lawmakers to pass legislation imposing tougher penalties for sex offenders.
Drew's boyfriend, Chris, spoke plainly about the gaps in the system.
Somehow he got through the cracks of a system that
(37:52):
doesn't seem to work. These people are walking time bombs.
The resulting legislation created longer sentences for all sex offense
and life sentences without parole for those who committed crimes
targeting children or other vulnerable people. It also allowed for
indeterminate sentences for individuals charged with lesser sex crimes. By
(38:15):
the next month, the House had approved the bill, a
somber legislative response to a tragedy that had already devastated
a community. By spring, the relentless grip of winter had
finally begun to loosen. The snow that had hindered so
(38:37):
many search efforts slowly started to melt, revealing the frozen
earth beneath. With the thaw came a renewed focus on
a specific area west of Croxton, a site that had
previously drawn the attention of search teams. It was in
this area that a bloodhound named Calamity Jane had alerted
to a cent. During the cold winter months, the snow
(38:59):
at the time had been thirst searching almost impossible. On
the morning of the seventeenth of April, searchers returned to
the area, determined not to let another opportunity slip by.
The focus was north of Polk County Road sixty one,
roughly two miles from where Drew's shoe had been found
months earlier. Among the searchers was Dick Roue, a retired
(39:22):
debuty who had joined the effort early on. For Dick,
the search had become personal. After months of scoring the countryside,
Drew's case had come to feel like looking for his
own daughter. That morning, Dick and a fellow searcher were
navigating a steep ravine that fed into the Red Lake River.
Dick had walked roughly seventy yards from the country road
(39:44):
when something on a small plateau caught his eye. The
plateau was about thirty feet below a steep drop, the
kind of hidden vantage point that could easily be missed.
I was up on top, and I just saw something black,
Dick later recalled, carefully making it his weight on the slope.
He approached the object, initially thinking it was a coat
(40:04):
discarded by the wind, but as he drew closer, the
horrifying reality became clear. Beneath the coat lay the body
of Drew shading. She was nude from the waist down,
with her hands bond behind her back. A rope ligature
encircled her neck, remnants of a plastic Kmart shopping bag
(40:24):
still clinging to it. Her body bore slash and stab
wounds to the throat and side, as well as bruises
across her right arm and the right side of her face.
Nearby lay her cell phone and the other missing shoe.
Dick remembered the moment vividly. I stood there and let
it sink in a little bit. Even though that was
(40:47):
what we were looking for, it was still a shock.
The news of Drew's death spread like wildfire. While many
had feared this outcome, its confirmation still hit the community
like a physical blue. Drew's father, Alan expressed the mixture
of grief and grim inevitability that the family had felt.
It's bittersweet. It's kind of what we've been preparing ourselves for.
(41:10):
We were waiting for that call, and when it came,
we all stopped living for a second. Her boyfriend Chris
echoed the same numbness. When I woke up this morning,
I knew it would be today. With all these resources,
we said we were going to bring her home, and
we did. Now I know she's been at peace for
a long time. A few days later, our friends and
(41:32):
family gathered to celebrate Drew's life across Sagg Lutheran Church.
The parking lot overflowed, cars lined the streets, and the
solemn possession of mourners reflected the depth of the community's loss.
Pink floor surrounded Drew's silver casket, and above it was
a photograph of her smiling face. Following the public viewing,
(41:54):
her funeral was held at the Grand View Lodge in Niswa,
where her family and friends paid their final respects. While
the community grave, federal prosecutors were already preparing a case
against Alphonso Rodriguez Junior. In May, it was announced that
he would be federally charged with kidnapping resulting in death,
making him eligible for the death penalty, a rare and
(42:17):
significant development. Neither North Dakota nor Minnesota, where Drew's body
was found, allowed for capital punishment under state law. The
trial would mark the first federal death penalty case in
North Dakota in over a century. The case had repel
effects far beyond the courtroom. Bob Hales, a private investigator
(42:39):
who worked closely on Drew's case, began lawbying federal lawmakers
to establish a national sex offender registry. The proposal aimed
to provide the public with accessible information about sex offenders
living nearby, a direct response to the tragedy that had
struck Drew's family. The legislation, which was dubbed Drew's Law,
(42:59):
was approved by House panel in July two thousand and five.
The law became part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act,
signed by President George W. Bush almost a year later.
Drew's Law created the first national sex offender database, enabling
the public to see where offenders lived and providing mechanisms
to trace them. It established new minimum sentences for crimes
(43:23):
against children, mandatory prison time for failing to register as
a sex offender, and funded the use of GPS monitoring.
It also mandated routine DNA collection from convicted sex offenders
and created a federal database to match genetic material from
child molesters. Victims of child abuse were granted the right
(43:43):
to sue their abusers, marking one of the most sweeping
legislative efforts to protect children in decades. Through the tragedy,
Drew Shadein's name became a catalyst for change, a legacy
that extended beyond grief, ensuring that future commit unities would
have the tools to track and monitor those who preyed
(44:04):
on the vulnerable. The federal kidnapping trial began on the
fifteenth of August. During opening statements, defense attorney Robert Hoy
attempted to dismantle the government's case before it even started.
(44:24):
He told jurors that Druscha Dein had died too quickly
for this to qualify as the federal crime. According to Hoi,
prosecutors would never be able to prove that she was
alive when Alphonso Rodriguez transported her across state lines the
technical detail required for the charge of federal kidnapping. He
(44:45):
claimed that Drew had been killed within minutes of her abduction,
and that the transportation of a dead body simply didn't
meet the definition of the statute. He argued, this is
the wrong case in the wrong court. Even if jurors
believed that Rodriguez was responsible, he said, they should acquit
him on the federal charge. The government has to prove
(45:07):
she was alive when transported, he told them, But prosecutor
Keith Reisner flatly rejected this argument. He said that the
evidence would prove beyond doubt that Rodriguez took Drew across
state lines while still alive before raping her, stabbing her,
and leaving her to die in the ditch. Forensic evidence
(45:28):
soon painted a disturbing picture. Fibers from Drew's black coat
were discovered in Rodriguez's car, while a hare on her
coat matched his. DNA. Fibers from a blanket on Rodriguez's
bed were consistent with those recovered on the knife sheaf
found behind Drew's car. A pink cotton shirt found on
(45:49):
Drew's body carried fibers that matched those from Rodriguez's car,
his boots, and a pair of gloves seized from his home.
Drew's blood was also discovered in his car and on
the knife itself. Doctor Michael McGee, forensic scientists, presented damning testimony.
His autopsy report made it unlikely that Drew had died
in the parking lot where she was abducted. Instead, he
(46:12):
concluded that her wounds were most likely inflicted at the
ravine where her body was found. Blood patterns on her
clothing and inside the car suggested she had been alive
when she was transported. Defensive wounds on her forearms showed
that she had fought back. McGee told jurors that she
ultimately died from suffocation, a neck wound, or exposure, possibly
(46:35):
a combination of all three. The evidence was overwhelming. After
less than four hours of deliberation, the jury returned with
a guilty verdict against Alphons over Driguez Junior, clearing the
way for the penalty phase of the trial. Before sentencing began,
the judge ruled that Rodriguez's family wouldn't be allowed to
make emotional plays to save his life. Their statements, like
(46:58):
those of Drew's family, would be stricted. During the penalty phase,
the defense attempted to humanize Rodriguez. Psychologist Marilyn Hutchinson told
the court that there were three Rodriguezes, one kind and thoughtful,
another cocky and boastful, and a third angry and dangerous.
She testified that Rodriguez had endured severe physical and psychological
(47:20):
trauma from birth, leaving his brain and personality stunted at
the level of a ten to thirteen year old child.
She diagnosed him with post traumatic stress disorder, explaining the
identity he established by default is I'm a failure. Living
in the world day to day is impossible for him.
Testimony about Rodriguez's upbringing also revealed sexual assaults he experienced
(47:43):
as a child. Case worker Ted Michelson, who once supervised Rodriguez,
said bluntly that he never should have been released from prison.
The prosecution counjured this narrative with their own expert. Doctor
Stephen Pitt, told jurors that Rodriguez didn't suffer from PTSD
at all. Instead, he argued, Rodriguez displayed traits of paraphilia
(48:06):
deviant sexual behavior, including phantasies involving humiliation and force. This time,
the jury deliberated for longer, but in the end they
determined that Rodriguez deserve the ultimate punishment. He was sentenced
to death for the abduction and murder of dru Shaedeen.
It's out of court. Drew's mother, Linda said, Drew's voice
(48:30):
was heard today and hopefully we'll be sounded around the
world because we don't tolerate any longer the violence against women,
much less our children. Her father, Allen, who had been
present for every moment of the trial, added, it's been
almost a thousand days since Drew's disappearance and death. It's
her strength that has driven us, her compassion, her serious
(48:52):
love for everyone, that give us the qualities to continue
this battle. He said. The family would have been equally
satisfied with life in prison without parole, a punishment that,
unbeknownst to him at the time, would eventually replace the
death penalty. In October two thousand and eleven, rodriguez defense
team filed the Habeas corpus motion, arguing that he was
mentally disabled. Habeas corpus petitions allowed prisoners to challenge their
(49:16):
imprisonment or sentence, often by raising claims that their constitutional
rights were violated. Years later, In two thousand and twenty one,
the same judge who had once sentenced him to death,
Ralph R. Ericsson, who was now serving on the Escort
of Appeals, overturned the death sentence. He ruled that the
testimony of doctor Michael mc gee, the medical examiner, had
(49:39):
been unreliable, misleading, and inaccurate. Erickson also found that Rodriguez's
lawyers had failed him by limiting his mental health evaluation,
which could have allowed for an insanity defense. On the
fourteenth of March two thousand and twenty three, prosecutors formally
announced that they were no longer seeking the death penalty.
(50:00):
Two months later, on the eighteenth of May, Rodriguez was
re sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
For Drew's family, it was the final chapter in a
decades long battle for justice. While the punishment had shifted
from death to life, their daughter's voice had still been
heard in the courtroom, just as Linda had said all
(50:22):
those years earlier. Rodriguez would spend the rest of his
life behind bars, but Drew's legacy lives on outside the
prison walls, in the memories of her loved ones and
Drew's law that is it for this episode of Morbidology.
(51:02):
As always, thank you so much for listening, and I'd
like to say a massive thank you to my new
supporter up on Patreon, Emily. In exchange for your support
off on Patreon, I upload ad free and early release
episodes behind the Scenes, which includes bonus videos, audio, and
case files that I get via freedom of information requests.
And I also upload bonus episodes of Morbidology Plus that
(51:23):
aren't on the regular podcast platforms. You can also get
these bonus episodes of Morbidology Plus up on Apple subscriptions.
Remember the checks out at morbidology dot com for more
information about this episode and to read some true crime articles.
Until next time, take care of yourselves, stay safe, and
have an amazing week.
Okay, I'm calling one of my actually, my roommates both
most of the on like a couple of hours ago.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
M Ground Forks in North Dakota is a city shaped
by both natural beauty and natural disaster. Founded in eighteen seventy,
this prairie community grew from a humble frontier trading post
into a thriving university town. It was home to the
University of North Dakota and almost sixty thousand residents by
(01:12):
the early two thousands. The city had weathered the devastating
flood of nineteen ninety seven, which forced the evacuation of
fifty thousand people and left much of downtown underwater, but
Grand Forks rebuilt stronger and more resilient. By two thousand
and three, life had returned to normal rhythms in Grand Forks.
The Columbia Mall had become the heart of the community's
(01:34):
retail life, a sprawling complex that opened in nineteen seventy
eight and served not just the city but shoppers from
across the region. On any given day, you'd found families
browsing the anchor stores, teenagers gathering at the food court,
and workers grabbing lunch between shifts. The mall's vast parking
lot buzzed with activity, a safe cars under the endless
(01:57):
Dakota sky. But on one cold November evening in two
thousand and three, that familiar scene would become the backdrop
for something far more sinister. The temperature had dropped well
below freezing, and a bitter wind swept across the parking
lot as shoppers hurried to their vehicles, breath visible in
the frigid air. Among them was a young woman making
(02:18):
her way across the asphalt towards her car. She had
her cell phone pressed to her ear as she spoke
with her boyfriend. Their conversation was routine, the comfortable chatter
of two people who talked every single day. She was
telling him about her day, about heading home, about the cold,
but then suddenly her voice changed. She said, oh my God,
(02:39):
in a panic tone. Then the line went dead. Drucia
Dane was born on the twenty six of September nineteen
(03:01):
eighty one in this quiet town of Pequot Lakes in Minnesota.
She was the daughter of Alan Shedane and Linda Walker,
and from the beginning, Drew radiated at warmth that seemed
to draw people in. She had an older brother Sven,
and the two were inseparable. More than just siblings, they
were best friends. Sven would later recall, she had that
(03:22):
ability to attract people. People just loved who she was.
We were both extroverted, but she had this smile, this
way of leaning in when she talked to you, that
made you feel like you'd known her your whole life.
Although Alan and Linda's marriage eventually came to an end,
it never fractured the family. They remained close friends, even
attending dinners together after they remarried. That sense of harmony
(03:46):
in love was something that Drew carried with her into
every corner of her own life. As a child, she
was spontaneous and endlessly kind. She was a kind of
girl who would sit at the kitchen table making little
cards and drawings for her friends and family just to
brighten their day. Her artistic strake earned her the nickname Doodles,
while others affectionately called her Drowsy. At high school, Drew's
(04:08):
energy and spirit shawn even brighter. She excelled academically, becoming
an honor student, and her classmates crowned her homecoming queen.
But she wasn't just the picture perfect student. She was
also a dedicated athlete with the love for basketball, volleyball,
and golf. By the time Drew graduated in two thousand,
she had already built a reputation as someone who could
(04:30):
balance grace, intelligence, and athleticism without ever losing her dawn
to earth nature. She went on to study graphic design
at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. There
she joined the Gama Phoebeta sorority. One of her sorority sisters, Randy,
said of her, even if she didn't know you, she'd
give you a smile. Randy admitted the Drews beauty was
(04:52):
the kind that might have intimidated others, but it didn't.
She explained, she was one of those girls you wanted
to hate, but you just couldn't. Another friend, Odo van
Hoff remembered how quickly Drew connected with people. She said,
you could get to know her instantly. You could talk
to her about anything. While balancing her classes, dre report
(05:13):
herself into causes that mattered. Through her sorority, she worked
with underprivileged teens, helped kindergarteners and first graders learned to read,
and raised money for organizations such as the American Diabetes Association.
She even volunteered for events that raised awareness about violence
against women and children. Drew also worked two jobs, one
(05:35):
at a Victoria's Secret store in the Columbia Mall and
another as a waitress at a local spot called El Rocco.
Somehow she managed to carry a full course load, give
her time to others, and still make space for joy.
She loved learning, always eager to ask questions, always curious
print production, electronic publishing. Anything that allowed her to bland
(05:57):
art with technology fascinated her. She even interned with the
university's aviation program, which gave her the chance to travel.
By the spring of two thousand and three, Drew was
twenty two years old and on the cusp of finishing
her degree. She had been set to graduate in May,
but when she learned of a special opportunity, a photography
(06:17):
class that would take her to Australia, she chose to
delay her graduation until August. At the time, Drew lived
off campus with her close friend Meg Murphy. Her days
were filled with lectures, studying, work, and volunteer projects, but
she always found time for the people who mattered the most.
Among them was her boyfriend Chris Lang. Drew had met
(06:39):
Chris the previous summer in her hometown, where he had
taken a seasonal job. Chris was from the Twin Cities area.
Unlike so many others, he had been drawn to Drew's smile,
but it was more than that. Chris recalled how Drew
made him feel seen, valued, important. He later said she
was just a great example of somebody raised by a wonderful,
(07:00):
loving family, and for Drew, the feelings were mutual. She
told friends that she might have met the man she
was going to marry. She could see a future with Chris,
but Drew had no way of knowing that she wouldn't
live to see a future with anybody. It was an
(07:26):
ordinary Saturday afternoon on November twenty second, two thousand and three,
at the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The
holiday shopping season was already beginning to stir. Inside the
Victoria's Secret Store, Drew Shdaine was finishing her shift. She
was known for her bright smile behind the counter, but
at around four o'clock she clocked out and slipped into
(07:48):
the cool air of the early evening. Before heading home,
Drew stopped at Marshall Fields, a department store just across
from where she worked. She picked out a new purse,
patted the register, and then walked back across the parking
lot towards her car and nineteen ninety four old mobile Cutlass.
Somewhere along that walk, Drew's phone rang. On the other
(08:11):
end of the line was her boyfriend, Chris. The two
shatted casually. Drew told him that she was heading to
her car, but then there was silence. Chris said her
name a few times, confused. That's when he heard her
voice again, quick and sharp as she said okay, okay,
Then just a breath later, oh my god, then the
(08:35):
line went dead. Chris stared at his phone. He tried
to call Drew back. Each time it just rang and rang.
Drew never answered. Worried, Chris reached out to Drew's roommate,
asking her to let him know when Drew got home,
but she never came back. Ours passed. Chris's anxiety grew heavier,
(08:56):
and then another phone call. It was Drew's number, really
flooded him as he picked up, but there was no
voice on the other end of the line. All he
could hear was static and the muffled sounds of buttons
being pressed. By then, Drew should have been starting her
evening shift at Al Roccu, the local bar where she
worked part time, but Drew never showed up. Now Chris's
(09:20):
worry turned to fear. Drew wasn't the kind of person
to ignore her phone. She wasn't the kind to just vanish.
He called her friends, hoping that somebody had seen her,
but nobody had. He in her roommate, Meg then called
nine one one.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I'm calling one of my actually, my roommates was most
to be all like a couple hours ago.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
The search for Drew began immediately. Detectives knew that the
first hours after a disappearance were critical. With Drew's abandoned
phone calls in her sudden silence, they quickly suspected the
worst that Drew had been abducted. Their first stop was
the Columbia Mall. Her automobile was still there in the
parking lot. The passenger door was unlocked. A shopping bag
(10:17):
from marshall Field sat inside the front seat, untouched. But
behind the car, detectives found something that stopped them in
their tracks. It was a black nylon sheathe marked with
the Words tool shop. It belonged to a folding lock
blade knife. It was a small clue, but it painted
a grim picture. Drew had made it safely back to
(10:39):
her car, and then something happened. Detectives pulled security footage
from inside the mall. Drew could be seen walking through
Victoria's Secret and later at Marshall Fields. She was alone
and nobody appeared to be following her, but outside the
cameras were sparse the parking lot offered little hell. Investigators
(11:01):
turned to the strange second call, the one that Chris
had received ours later with nothing, but the static celtar
data showed that the call pinged off atar near Fisher And, Minnesota,
around twenty five miles from Grand Forks, and for nearly
twenty four rs, druce phone remained in that area, but
Tree had no reason to be there, and if she
(11:23):
wasn't in her own car, it meant that somebody else
had taken her there. Detective Mike Sholes explained, it's not
uncommon for people to go missing for a variety of reasons,
but certain characteristics of this case demand immediate attention. So
in all points, bullet And went out. Law enforcement agencies
across the region were notified.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
The U. S.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Border Patrol joined the effort, deploying aircraft to search from above.
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Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. On
the ground, deputies from Polk County and Grand Forks County, University, Police,
and even the FBI coordinated search efforts. They began in Fisher,
sweeping in eight mile radius around Fisher's Landing, a small
riverside community on the Red River lined with woodland and marshland.
(13:35):
Bloodhounds traced sends along the water's edge, their handlers pushing
into the dense underbrush ATVs roared down dirt tracks where
cars couldn't go. Searchers spread out across farmland, abandoned buildings,
and roadside ditches. We're going to find this girl, Officer
Trent s Sheckler told reporters that were gathered at the scene. Meanwhile,
(13:58):
Drew's face filled the media. Flowers went up across North
Dakota and Minnesota. News broadcasts describe her in careful detail
the day she vanished, who had been wearing black slacks,
black loafers, and a pink and purple v neck blouse
over it. She wore a black blay as her style jacket,
and she carried a small black handbag. But despite the urgency,
(14:20):
the days dragged on without any answers. Detectives widened the search.
Volunteers joined in, coming through back roads, drainage, ditches, and fields.
Lieutenant Byron Sever voiced what everyone was thinking. We're going
to search every inch of the ditches. You don't know
where she might be at. You just hope for the best,
(14:41):
but every minute is precious mean. While Drew's family issued
a plea for help, offering a twenty thousand dollar reward
for her return, her mother Linda, spoke through tears, she's
very responsible. This is totally out of character for her.
But as each day passed, the hope of finding Drew
safegrewed dimm What began as a regular Saturday had turned
(15:03):
into a nightmare that now stretched across two states, and
as the search widened, so too did the questions, who
had taken Drew Shadeen and where was she now? At
the University of North Dakota, the mood was heavy. By
(15:26):
Monday morning, the story of Drew's disappearance had spread across
the campus. Students whispered to one another in hallways asking
the same question, did you hear what happened to Drew?
Drew had been so well known, so present, that the
news felt unreal. She wasn't just another face in the
lecture hall. She was the person who smiled at you
(15:47):
in passing, who leaned in when she talked to you,
like you were already friends. Brae Hearing, a junior, tried
to put it into words. You hear about this stuff
on the news, but it doesn't hit home because you
don't know a person who was abducted. When you can
put a face to the name and picture her sitting
in class, it's strange. Her sorority sisters hung a sign
(16:09):
that read Pray for Drew. The university announced counseling for students,
and that night, around three hundred and fifty people crowded
into the Christus Rex Lutheran campus, sent there for a
vigil Candles flickered in the dim room as voices rose
in prayer. But beneath that grief there was fear. It
(16:30):
hadn't been midnight in some deserted alley when Drew vanished.
It was broad daylight, five o'clock on a Saturday evening
in a busy mall car park. Whoever had taken Drew
was brazen, and that meant they could do it again.
Drew's friends insisted she had no reason to be near Fisher,
in Minnesota, where her cell phone had last pink. Her
(16:52):
family said that she didn't know a soul there. Her
friend Adam Shotts commented, she just wouldn't take off without
letting anybody know. She's a great person. I don't know
why anyone would want to do anything to hurt her.
The shock rippled beyond the university across Grand Forks Fair
translated into action. Seals of pepper spray stun guns and
(17:14):
other self protection items exploded. It's beyond belief, said Jason
Schultz at Home of Economy. He said that they normally
sell some when college is back in season, but they'd
sold eight years worth in just ten days. Meanwhile, the
search around Fisher continued The town itself was little more
(17:35):
than farmland, woods and the winding Red River, a quiet
place that was now transformed into the center of a
desperate man hunt. Hundreds of volunteers poured into help. People
were bossed in from Grand Forks every hour, braving the
biting cold. Drew's family searched alongside them, trudging through snow drifts,
(17:56):
refusing to stop, but the elements worked against them. Temperatures plunged,
the wind slicing so sharply that it felt like ten
below zero. Still, volunteers were on their hands and knees
combing frozen ground for the smallest clue. Investigators warned that
the ping from Drew's cell phone didn't necessarily mean that
(18:16):
she'd been in fissure at all. Sergeant Michael Hedlund explained,
it could have been someone driving down the road and
throwing the phone out the window. We don't know she's
been here. We know the cell phone has been here. Still,
the search pressed on the perimeter widened, reaching out to
surrounding towns. Among them was Crookston, a small city twelve
(18:39):
miles away, and on the twenty fifth of November, detectives
found something beneath the Highway seventy five by pass Bridge
lay a discarded shoe. Drew's family identified it immediately it
belonged to Drew. The discovery brought no comfort, only dread.
Two days later, as Thanksgiving approached, Drew's family and investigators
(19:03):
renewed their play for information. Her father, Alan said, were
overwhelmed by the generosity and the support of the Grand
Forks community. There is in our hearts and our thoughts
and prayers. We would like to have her home for
a Thanksgiving reunion. But Thanksgiving came and went. While most
students returned home, some of Drew's closest friends stayed behind,
(19:25):
refusing to leave while she remained missing. Her family launched
a website, found drew dot com, which featured her photographs,
details of her abduction, and the number for the tip line.
They also raised the reward fund dramatically, up to one
hundred and forty thousand dollars for her safe return. Detectives
now turned to another pressing question, who could have wanted
(19:48):
the hurt Drew. By all accounts, she had no enemies.
She was kind and welcoming. Nobody could think of anybody
who would wish her harm. But then, as investigators began
sp speaking with her co workers. One detail caught their attention,
a victorious secret. Somebody had called the store in recent weeks.
(20:09):
The caller had a foreign accent. He'd asked to speak
to Dry directly. The call had been harassing in nature.
Detectives began to dig deeper. They decided to come through
the sex offender Registry for the area, a routaining but
critical step in cases like this. It didn't take long
before one name leapt off the page. He was local,
(20:33):
he was high risk, and his PAS suggested he was
capable of far worse than harassment. Alphonso Rodriguez Junior was
born on the eighteenth of February nineteen fifty three, the
second oldest of five children to a family of migrant workers.
(20:57):
His father, Alphonso Senior, had only a third grade education,
and he spoke Spanish. His mother, Lauris, had attended school
only until the fourth grade, but she taught herself to
Reid and speak English. For fifteen years, the family moved
back and forth between Texas and the Red River Valley
before settling in Crookston in Minnesota. Both parents worked long,
(21:19):
grueling ours in the fields, leaving little time for the children,
Rodriguez had a difficult start in life. He was small, fussy,
and sickly. He couldn't tolerate breast milk, and doctors advised
his mother to feed him rice water instead. By four
months old, he was on the verge of starvation and
(21:39):
diagnosed with failure to thrive. That early fragility seemed to
shadow him throughout his life. He never learned to read
or out properly, and struggled to meet basic developmental milestones.
While his family was hard working, they were plagued by
poverty and a range of physical and mental health challenges.
Rodriguez himself would later be diagnosed with depression, diabetes, hand tremmers,
(22:04):
and chemical dependency. Dolores described him as different, quiet, withdrawn
out of step with the rest of the world. Once
she worked in the fields, she would bring the children along,
leaving them to play in the ditches. His sister, Sylvia
recalled chasing frogs into tunnels and hiding from the crop
dusting plains, whose chemicals sometimes landed on their skin and
(22:28):
left a sticky residue. By the age of five, Rodriguez
and his siblings were sent to a migrant children's camp
while their parents worked. It was here that the first
sexual abuse occurred, perpetrated by an older female. Sylvia later
recounted witnessing the assault. Not long after, a man who
rented their home forced Rodriguez and Sylvia into an outhouse
(22:52):
and coerced them into fondling him. Rodriguez had tried to
protect his cyst there, but even at such a young
age that trauma began to shape him, and the abuse
didn't stop. At age six, Rodriguez was molested by a
college aged woman at a church camp. The next year,
a teenage boy sexually assaulted him. The repeated trauma, combined
(23:15):
with the childhood of neglect, left deep scars that would
follow him into his adulthood. By age nine, the family
had relocated to Croxton and Minnesota. Dolores worked evening shifts
in a restaurant kitchen, leaving the children largely to their
own devices. Their father arrived home late and was physically abusive,
frequently beating Rodrigurez and calling him stupid. In response, Rodriguez
(23:40):
often retreated further into himself. He self medicated with alcohol
and drugs, including acid, hash, and marijuana, and he scavenged
for food and entertainment. At the local dump school was
said to be another battlefield. He walked with a limp,
one leg shorter than the other, and his hands shook
form tremors. He was an easy target for the bullies,
(24:03):
who kicked, pushed, and mocked him relentlessly. One cruel episode
involved classmates threatening to paint him with white paint because
of the color of his skin. Rodriguez had few friends
and often sat on the sidelines watching the other children play.
His younger siblings quickly surpassed him in school, and his
(24:23):
brother Paco later admitted he was embarrassed by him by
every measure. He was an outsider, small, fragile, lonely, and
haunted by the hardships and abuse of his early years.
It was a childhood marked by deprivation, cruelty, and isolation,
one that would later leave its shadow on the choices
he made as an adult and the crimes that he
(24:46):
would commit. By the time Alfonso Rodriguez Junior reached the
age of eighteen, the first cracks in his violent trajectory
had already begun to appear. In nineteen seventy four, he
(25:07):
was arrested for kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women at
knife point. His methods were opportunistic but terrifyingly calculated. His
first victim had agreed to give him a ride home,
Trusting a stranger's polite demeanor, Rodriguez directed her to a
secluded driveway. Then he grabbed her by the throat, pulled
(25:27):
her into the back of the car, and attempted to
rape her. Just a month later, he found another woman
stranded outside a theater and offered to help her start
her car. When she accepted, he forced his way into
her vehicle, drove her into a remote area, threatened her
with a knife, and then sexually assaulted her. After these attacks,
(25:47):
Rodriguez was sent to the State Security Hospital in Saint Peter, Minnesota. There,
he revealed to a psychologist that before the assaults, he
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promo code morbidology ten. The assessment painted a troubling picture.
He was diagnosed with an alcoholic personality disorder with some paranoid,
schizoid and antisocial tendencies. Rodriguez himself admitted he had sexual
aggression issue, although he claimed he could control his impulses,
(28:04):
but his past actions suggested it otherwise. On the ninth
of April nineteen eighty, he was released on a pass
to his parents' home in Croxton. Only four days later,
he approached a woman for directions. When she refused to cooperate,
he grabbed her arm and threatened get in the car
or I'm going to kill you. She struggled, and in response,
(28:25):
Rodriguez stabbed her in the arm AND's stomach. By some
stroke of luck, she managed to escape. Rodriguez was convicted
of kidnapping and aggravated assault. During a sentencing hearing, he
requested a return to Saint Peter rather than be sent
to prison. He told the court, well, I guess I
will always need treatment of some kind and I would
(28:46):
benefit from it. The judge told him, I don't know
whether it's emotional or whatever it is, but it's something
that you apparently have no control over. Until such time
as there is some medical proof, mister Rodriguez, that saw
something has taken place with you that will prevent you
from acting out in this way. You should not be
allowed to roam free in our society. Rodriguez was sentenced
(29:10):
to twenty three years in prison, yet in those decades
behind bars, his treatment was minimal. He received chemical dependency counseling,
but he refused programs designed to address his sexual aggression.
Prison offered structure but no real rehabilitation, leaving the underlying
pathology unaddressed. Between the ages of eighteen and fifty, Rodriguez
(29:33):
would spend all but approximately three and a half years incarcerated.
By the early two thousands, he had become all too
familiar with the routines and rules of the penal system,
but freedom remained an alien concept even he feared it.
He confided to a prison psychologist, I want to be
locked up, but not locked up. This revealed the anxious
(29:55):
tension that would follow him into the outside world. His
family was also on it easy They contacted the Minnesota
Department of Corrections to voice their concerns over his eminent
release and lack of supervision. His sister called local police
repeatedly and pleaded with them to monitor him. She feared
that he would strike again, but Sergeant Jerry Moreno informed
(30:19):
her that once a person had served their sentence, there
were no ties to probation, no system in place to
enforce oversight. The Department of Corrections had the option to
civilly commit Rodriguez given the risk he pose, but they
chose not to their own experts had warned that his
untraded sexual aggression, combined with a return to an environment
(30:42):
lacking structure, could actually encourage further criminal behavior. Yet prison
officials concluded that there was little in his conduct during
incarceration to suggest imminent danger. So in May of two
thousand and three, just six months before dru Shadin would
be abducted, Rodriguez was released. He moved into his mother
(31:05):
Dolores's home on Adams Street in Crooston, a tidy, quiet
neighborhood where families had lived for decades. Dolores, who had
once labored in the fields alongside her husband and children,
was now well known in the community. She was polite,
soft spoken, and always shared homemade Tomali's with her neighbors.
(31:26):
Her husband had passed away, leaving her to manage the
household alone, with Alphonso's presence now a stark reminder of
the past. Rodriguez's release came with conditions. As a Level
three sex offender, he was required to register with law
enforcement for ten years, reporting his address, vehicle, and employment.
(31:48):
Neighbors initially noticed little out of the ordinary. Alissa Cardinal,
who lived nearby, recalled, you never saw him unless he
was mowing the lawn or trimming the plants in the front.
Appearances were deceptive. Behind the quiet, methodical routines of his days,
Rodriguez carried a history of unchecked aggression, devian impulses, and
(32:10):
violent urges. For decades. His life had been a cycle
of abuse, trauma, and institutionalization, leaving him ill equipped to
navigate the world safely. The calm he projected in the
neighborhood masked the danger simmering beneath, a danger that just
months later would erupt with devastating consequences. Once detectives discovered
(32:45):
that Alphonso Rodriguez Junior had been in the Vicinityond the
day that Drew vanished, he quickly became the focus of
their investigation. His history of abducting women he didn't know
made him a person of interest, and investigators were determan
to learn exactly where he had been that afternoon. Rodriguez
had been scheduled to work hanging drywall at a construction
(33:07):
site in Macintosh, Minnesota, but he hadn't shown up. Detectives
contacted him and requested he come in for an interview.
They asked him to account for his whereabouts on the
evening of November twenty second, the day that Drew disappeared.
Rodriguez initially claimed he had been at the cinema watching
Once Upon a Time in Mexico from four point thirty
(33:30):
eight to seven thirty pm at a theater not too
far from the mall. He said he had stopped for
a quick meal at McDonald's before heading back to his
home in Crooston. On the surface, it seemed like a
plausible alibi, but when detectives checked the story quickly unraveled.
The movie he claimed to have seen that day hadn't
been playing in any Grand Forks theaters. When confronted with
(33:54):
this discrepancy, Rodriguez offered no explanation.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Tell us that you into the movie theater, but that
doesn't really pair out.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
We're having trouble finding me on.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
The McDonald's videotape, to think maybe you were acted.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Somewhere else and.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
All he said was that he wasn't at the mall,
but detectives had footage of him inside the mall. Authority
soon obtained a search warrant for Rodriguez's car, a two
thousand and two Mercury Sable sedan. The vehicle appeared clean,
almost meticulously so, suggesting somebody had recently attempted to remove evidence.
(34:34):
Inside the spare tire well, detectives found a black folding
lock blade knife, the type that would normally have a
tool shop sheath, but there was no sheath to be found.
The knife was also found lying in a pool of
household cleaner, as if somebody had tried to scrub it.
Spotless bloodstains were discovered. On the back seat near the
(34:56):
rear passenger window and in two other areas. DNA testing
confirmed the worse. The blood and the knife contained Drew's DNA,
with the evidence minding. Rodriguez was charged with kidnapping an
order to be held on five million dollar bill. In court,
his lawyers argued that he wanted to remain behind bars
(35:17):
at least temporarily, citing concerns for his own safety. The
arrest brought a chilling reality to Drew's family and friends
hoped that she might still be alive plummeted. Her cousin
Jason Nelson expressed, we're human, so we're scared when we
learned of his history, But his history is also that
he is not escalated to murder, so that leaves the
(35:40):
family with hope that drystol out there. Winter tightened its
grip on the region. The bitter cold and deep snow
forced volunteer searchers to step back, leaving the National Guard
to continue the efforts in humvies and insulated suits. Rob Keller,
a spokesman for the North Dakota Army National Guard, said
(36:02):
cold weather does make the job harder. One of the
things we don't want to have happen is one of
our soldiers get injured. By the twenty seventh of December,
Drow's family had raised almost sixty thousand dollars to support
search efforts, a testament to the community's determination and dedication.
But beyond the immediate search, the case sparked broader conversations
(36:24):
about public safety and legal protections. By January, lawmakers and
prosecutors began examining the state's laws regarding repeat sex offenders.
Cass County State's Attorney Birch Burdick explained the significance of
the case. I don't think there's a prosecutor anywhere that
isn't aware of what's going on in the Dru shadaiin
(36:45):
matter and hasn't had an opportunity to think about what
that means in their own community. The focus was on
North Dakoda's nineteen ninety seven law, which allowed people deemed
sexually dangerous by at least two experts to be held
in definitely in the state hospital. In Jamestown. District judges
preside over these civil commitment hearings, which can be initiated
(37:08):
either before or after a criminal conviction. State penitentiary officials
often evaluate sex offenders before release, assessing the risk they
might pose. Since the laws enactment, twelve offenders had been
committed under this provision. The shitting case prompted prosecutors in
larger North Dakota cities to consider recommending more prisoners for
(37:30):
civil commitment. By March, Drew's family, friends, and supporters appeared
before the Senate Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee and
urged lawmakers to pass legislation imposing tougher penalties for sex offenders.
Drew's boyfriend, Chris, spoke plainly about the gaps in the system.
Somehow he got through the cracks of a system that
(37:52):
doesn't seem to work. These people are walking time bombs.
The resulting legislation created longer sentences for all sex offense
and life sentences without parole for those who committed crimes
targeting children or other vulnerable people. It also allowed for
indeterminate sentences for individuals charged with lesser sex crimes. By
(38:15):
the next month, the House had approved the bill, a
somber legislative response to a tragedy that had already devastated
a community. By spring, the relentless grip of winter had
finally begun to loosen. The snow that had hindered so
(38:37):
many search efforts slowly started to melt, revealing the frozen
earth beneath. With the thaw came a renewed focus on
a specific area west of Croxton, a site that had
previously drawn the attention of search teams. It was in
this area that a bloodhound named Calamity Jane had alerted
to a cent. During the cold winter months, the snow
(38:59):
at the time had been thirst searching almost impossible. On
the morning of the seventeenth of April, searchers returned to
the area, determined not to let another opportunity slip by.
The focus was north of Polk County Road sixty one,
roughly two miles from where Drew's shoe had been found
months earlier. Among the searchers was Dick Roue, a retired
(39:22):
debuty who had joined the effort early on. For Dick,
the search had become personal. After months of scoring the countryside,
Drew's case had come to feel like looking for his
own daughter. That morning, Dick and a fellow searcher were
navigating a steep ravine that fed into the Red Lake River.
Dick had walked roughly seventy yards from the country road
(39:44):
when something on a small plateau caught his eye. The
plateau was about thirty feet below a steep drop, the
kind of hidden vantage point that could easily be missed.
I was up on top, and I just saw something black,
Dick later recalled, carefully making it his weight on the slope.
He approached the object, initially thinking it was a coat
(40:04):
discarded by the wind, but as he drew closer, the
horrifying reality became clear. Beneath the coat lay the body
of Drew shading. She was nude from the waist down,
with her hands bond behind her back. A rope ligature
encircled her neck, remnants of a plastic Kmart shopping bag
(40:24):
still clinging to it. Her body bore slash and stab
wounds to the throat and side, as well as bruises
across her right arm and the right side of her face.
Nearby lay her cell phone and the other missing shoe.
Dick remembered the moment vividly. I stood there and let
it sink in a little bit. Even though that was
(40:47):
what we were looking for, it was still a shock.
The news of Drew's death spread like wildfire. While many
had feared this outcome, its confirmation still hit the community
like a physical blue. Drew's father, Alan expressed the mixture
of grief and grim inevitability that the family had felt.
It's bittersweet. It's kind of what we've been preparing ourselves for.
(41:10):
We were waiting for that call, and when it came,
we all stopped living for a second. Her boyfriend Chris
echoed the same numbness. When I woke up this morning,
I knew it would be today. With all these resources,
we said we were going to bring her home, and
we did. Now I know she's been at peace for
a long time. A few days later, our friends and
(41:32):
family gathered to celebrate Drew's life across Sagg Lutheran Church.
The parking lot overflowed, cars lined the streets, and the
solemn possession of mourners reflected the depth of the community's loss.
Pink floor surrounded Drew's silver casket, and above it was
a photograph of her smiling face. Following the public viewing,
(41:54):
her funeral was held at the Grand View Lodge in Niswa,
where her family and friends paid their final respects. While
the community grave, federal prosecutors were already preparing a case
against Alphonso Rodriguez Junior. In May, it was announced that
he would be federally charged with kidnapping resulting in death,
making him eligible for the death penalty, a rare and
(42:17):
significant development. Neither North Dakota nor Minnesota, where Drew's body
was found, allowed for capital punishment under state law. The
trial would mark the first federal death penalty case in
North Dakota in over a century. The case had repel
effects far beyond the courtroom. Bob Hales, a private investigator
(42:39):
who worked closely on Drew's case, began lawbying federal lawmakers
to establish a national sex offender registry. The proposal aimed
to provide the public with accessible information about sex offenders
living nearby, a direct response to the tragedy that had
struck Drew's family. The legislation, which was dubbed Drew's Law,
(42:59):
was approved by House panel in July two thousand and five.
The law became part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act,
signed by President George W. Bush almost a year later.
Drew's Law created the first national sex offender database, enabling
the public to see where offenders lived and providing mechanisms
to trace them. It established new minimum sentences for crimes
(43:23):
against children, mandatory prison time for failing to register as
a sex offender, and funded the use of GPS monitoring.
It also mandated routine DNA collection from convicted sex offenders
and created a federal database to match genetic material from
child molesters. Victims of child abuse were granted the right
(43:43):
to sue their abusers, marking one of the most sweeping
legislative efforts to protect children in decades. Through the tragedy,
Drew Shadein's name became a catalyst for change, a legacy
that extended beyond grief, ensuring that future commit unities would
have the tools to track and monitor those who preyed
(44:04):
on the vulnerable. The federal kidnapping trial began on the
fifteenth of August. During opening statements, defense attorney Robert Hoy
attempted to dismantle the government's case before it even started.
(44:24):
He told jurors that Druscha Dein had died too quickly
for this to qualify as the federal crime. According to Hoi,
prosecutors would never be able to prove that she was
alive when Alphonso Rodriguez transported her across state lines the
technical detail required for the charge of federal kidnapping. He
(44:45):
claimed that Drew had been killed within minutes of her abduction,
and that the transportation of a dead body simply didn't
meet the definition of the statute. He argued, this is
the wrong case in the wrong court. Even if jurors
believed that Rodriguez was responsible, he said, they should acquit
him on the federal charge. The government has to prove
(45:07):
she was alive when transported, he told them, But prosecutor
Keith Reisner flatly rejected this argument. He said that the
evidence would prove beyond doubt that Rodriguez took Drew across
state lines while still alive before raping her, stabbing her,
and leaving her to die in the ditch. Forensic evidence
(45:28):
soon painted a disturbing picture. Fibers from Drew's black coat
were discovered in Rodriguez's car, while a hare on her
coat matched his. DNA. Fibers from a blanket on Rodriguez's
bed were consistent with those recovered on the knife sheaf
found behind Drew's car. A pink cotton shirt found on
(45:49):
Drew's body carried fibers that matched those from Rodriguez's car,
his boots, and a pair of gloves seized from his home.
Drew's blood was also discovered in his car and on
the knife itself. Doctor Michael McGee, forensic scientists, presented damning testimony.
His autopsy report made it unlikely that Drew had died
in the parking lot where she was abducted. Instead, he
(46:12):
concluded that her wounds were most likely inflicted at the
ravine where her body was found. Blood patterns on her
clothing and inside the car suggested she had been alive
when she was transported. Defensive wounds on her forearms showed
that she had fought back. McGee told jurors that she
ultimately died from suffocation, a neck wound, or exposure, possibly
(46:35):
a combination of all three. The evidence was overwhelming. After
less than four hours of deliberation, the jury returned with
a guilty verdict against Alphons over Driguez Junior, clearing the
way for the penalty phase of the trial. Before sentencing began,
the judge ruled that Rodriguez's family wouldn't be allowed to
make emotional plays to save his life. Their statements, like
(46:58):
those of Drew's family, would be stricted. During the penalty phase,
the defense attempted to humanize Rodriguez. Psychologist Marilyn Hutchinson told
the court that there were three Rodriguezes, one kind and thoughtful,
another cocky and boastful, and a third angry and dangerous.
She testified that Rodriguez had endured severe physical and psychological
(47:20):
trauma from birth, leaving his brain and personality stunted at
the level of a ten to thirteen year old child.
She diagnosed him with post traumatic stress disorder, explaining the
identity he established by default is I'm a failure. Living
in the world day to day is impossible for him.
Testimony about Rodriguez's upbringing also revealed sexual assaults he experienced
(47:43):
as a child. Case worker Ted Michelson, who once supervised Rodriguez,
said bluntly that he never should have been released from prison.
The prosecution counjured this narrative with their own expert. Doctor
Stephen Pitt, told jurors that Rodriguez didn't suffer from PTSD
at all. Instead, he argued, Rodriguez displayed traits of paraphilia
(48:06):
deviant sexual behavior, including phantasies involving humiliation and force. This time,
the jury deliberated for longer, but in the end they
determined that Rodriguez deserve the ultimate punishment. He was sentenced
to death for the abduction and murder of dru Shaedeen.
It's out of court. Drew's mother, Linda said, Drew's voice
(48:30):
was heard today and hopefully we'll be sounded around the
world because we don't tolerate any longer the violence against women,
much less our children. Her father, Allen, who had been
present for every moment of the trial, added, it's been
almost a thousand days since Drew's disappearance and death. It's
her strength that has driven us, her compassion, her serious
(48:52):
love for everyone, that give us the qualities to continue
this battle. He said. The family would have been equally
satisfied with life in prison without parole, a punishment that,
unbeknownst to him at the time, would eventually replace the
death penalty. In October two thousand and eleven, rodriguez defense
team filed the Habeas corpus motion, arguing that he was
mentally disabled. Habeas corpus petitions allowed prisoners to challenge their
(49:16):
imprisonment or sentence, often by raising claims that their constitutional
rights were violated. Years later, In two thousand and twenty one,
the same judge who had once sentenced him to death,
Ralph R. Ericsson, who was now serving on the Escort
of Appeals, overturned the death sentence. He ruled that the
testimony of doctor Michael mc gee, the medical examiner, had
(49:39):
been unreliable, misleading, and inaccurate. Erickson also found that Rodriguez's
lawyers had failed him by limiting his mental health evaluation,
which could have allowed for an insanity defense. On the
fourteenth of March two thousand and twenty three, prosecutors formally
announced that they were no longer seeking the death penalty.
(50:00):
Two months later, on the eighteenth of May, Rodriguez was
re sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
For Drew's family, it was the final chapter in a
decades long battle for justice. While the punishment had shifted
from death to life, their daughter's voice had still been
heard in the courtroom, just as Linda had said all
(50:22):
those years earlier. Rodriguez would spend the rest of his
life behind bars, but Drew's legacy lives on outside the
prison walls, in the memories of her loved ones and
Drew's law that is it for this episode of Morbidology.
(51:02):
As always, thank you so much for listening, and I'd
like to say a massive thank you to my new
supporter up on Patreon, Emily. In exchange for your support
off on Patreon, I upload ad free and early release
episodes behind the Scenes, which includes bonus videos, audio, and
case files that I get via freedom of information requests.
And I also upload bonus episodes of Morbidology Plus that
(51:23):
aren't on the regular podcast platforms. You can also get
these bonus episodes of Morbidology Plus up on Apple subscriptions.
Remember the checks out at morbidology dot com for more
information about this episode and to read some true crime articles.
Until next time, take care of yourselves, stay safe, and
have an amazing week.
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