On the night of January 6, 2014, Richard Nelson, 47, was shot and killed while sleeping on the living room floor of a rural farmhouse in Montgomery Township, Minnesota. Deputies from Le Sueur County found him with a fatal gunshot wound to the head; the wound was reported as severe enough to prevent an open-casket funeral.

The death was reported by Nelson’s 18-year-old son, Jonas D. Nelson, who first told 911 dispatchers he had been upstairs when he heard a shot. Under questioning he confessed to taking a high-powered rifle from a locked gun cabinet and shooting his father. Jonas cited escalating tension, his father’s harshness, differing religious views, and their parents’ divorce as contributing factors and said he had “snapped.”

Jonas Nelson was arrested and initially charged with second-degree murder; a grand jury later indicted him on first-degree premeditated murder. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole; an appeal seeking suppression of his confession was denied by the Minnesota Supreme Court. Does anyone have information about the family dynamics or the events leading up to that January night?