On September 29, 1983, Deems A. Toby Thulin, 37, a loan officer from Tyler, Minnesota, was shot in the throat and killed while sitting inside a vehicle in the driveway of an abandoned Jenkins family dairy farm near Ruthton. Rudolph Rudy Blythe, 42, president of the Buffalo Ridge State Bank, was wounded in the same car and was shot multiple times as he tried to flee.

Primary suspects were Steven Jenkins, then 18, and his father James Jenkins, 46. The Jenkins family had lost the farm to the bank in 1980, and James blamed Blythe. Thulin and Blythe were lured to the vacated farm under the pretense of discussing financial matters. After the attack the Jenkinses fled; James Jenkins shot himself in the head on October 2, 1983, while Steven surrendered to police and admitted involvement.

At trial Steven Jenkins said his father fired the shots and that he hid behind a garage. He was convicted of first-degree murder for Blythe and second-degree murder for Thulin and received a life sentence. The Minnesota Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1985.