In late October 2011, 43-year-old James Kelly Omara was found dead in his Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, apartment. His date of death was determined to be October 29, 2011; a building manager discovered his body on November 1 after following a strange odor. Omara was found on a couch with a pillow over his head and had been fatally shot in the forehead.

Investigators focused on Omara’s 38-year-old ex-wife, Angelina Mae Omara, who had been staying with him for about a month before his death. Days after James’s body was discovered, Angelina’s boyfriend, 36-year-old Michael Pies, was found shot in the head with a pillow over his face in a motel room in Ashland, Wisconsin. Angelina was arrested in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on November 3, 2011, after her vehicle was located abandoned.

Angelina Omara initially faced second-degree murder charges in Minnesota, later pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of James Omara during a November 2012 trial, and in December 2012 received life without parole for that killing. The motive for the killings was not fully clarified. Did anyone in the Sauk Rapids or Ashland areas know these individuals or notice anything unusual that autumn?