On January 6, 2019 the body of 33-year-old Joshua Robert Lavalley of Aurora, Minnesota, was found by snowmobilers on the Mesabi Trail in Hibbing. Investigators determined Lavalley had been shot twice in the face and had been blindfolded before being led into the woods, injuries and circumstances described as a calculated and brutal homicide.

Authorities identified three suspects from Hibbing: 18-year-old Deshon Israel Bonnell, 20-year-old Anthony Emerson Howson, and 17-year-old Bailey French. Arrests followed in the days after the body was discovered. Prosecutors alleged the killing grew out of claims that Lavalley had made unwanted sexual contact with French, who was Bonnell’s girlfriend, which reportedly enraged Bonnell and the others. Court filings say Bonnell and French led a blindfolded Lavalley into the woods while Howson waited in a vehicle and that Bonnell shot Lavalley there.

All three faced murder, kidnapping and robbery charges; Burlington received a life sentence as the shooter, Howson a 25-year term and French, tried as an adult, 37 years. Does anyone have information about Lavalley’s movements in northern St. Louis County around January 2019?