Jeffry Foss, 59, was found dead on a Saint Paul sidewalk on July 1, 2022, the victim of a single gunshot to the back of the head. He was discovered in the 600 block of Dale Street North near a garden area with picnic tables strewn with empty alcohol containers and cigarette packs; surveillance footage from the area became central to the investigation.

Video and witness accounts show Foss walking with a male companion earlier that evening when they encountered two men, one later identified as 22-year-old Payton Wood. According to Wood, he and a friend had left cigarettes and alcohol on the picnic tables and returned to find Foss and his companion going through their belongings. An argument turned physical; Foss’s companion reportedly produced a knife and later stabbed a tire on Wood’s truck before fleeing, with Foss running about 20 yards behind. Wood told police he fired one shot while aiming at the man with the knife but struck Foss instead. An autopsy ruled the gunshot to the back of the head the cause of death.

Wood initially returned to the scene posing as a curious neighbor and, several days later on July 6, met investigators with an attorney. He said he disposed of the handgun in the Mississippi River and did not have a permit for the firearm. He was charged with second-degree murder. Did anyone in the area that night see the confrontation or the truck with the stabbed tire?