[The Barrenness]

This is getting quite a bit of attention locally:

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox...Y&pageId=3.2.1

MOUNDS VIEW -- A man suspected of brutally murdering three women -- one elderly, one disabled -- in Mounds View is charged with three counts of second degree murder by Ramsey County Attorneys' Office.

Johnny Lee Ellis allegedly murdered the three women at the home of Jolyn Vigen, 76, who lives with her two grown daughters Angela Vigen, 40, and Jennifer Vigen, 35. Jennifer was born with Down's syndrome.

Police arrived at the Vigen home to check on the welfare of the residents following a relative request Monday.

Officers found the back door had been broken into. The bodies of Jolyn and Jennifer were found in a bedroom. They had apparently been dead for a significant amount of time from multiple stab wounds.

Further search found no other bodies. Crime scene investigators later found a locked door in the basement, behind which was the body of Angela in a pool of blood with a hammer lying next to her.

Around 7 p.m., Minneapolis police responded to a call of a man who was suicidal after a "crime he had committed in another city…the ones in Mounds View.”

The man was found holding a knife inside an apartment in the 3000 block of Third Street North. Sgt. Jesse Garcia said the police used a Taser on the man, who started stabbing himself in the chest. Garcia said the man wanted police to kill him.

Police recovered the knife, handcuffed the man and took him to North Memorial Medical Center for treatment of his injuries. Mounds View police informed Minneapolis officers of the triple murder, believing the suicidal man was their suspect.

A credit card belonging to Angela Vigen was found in the room where Ellis was found. A woman in the company of him who spoke with the 911 operator during the call was questioned. She noted Ellis had been in her apartment earlier in the day. He was apparently distraught, she said. The two were watching the local news when a story about a double murder in Mounds View was reported.

Ellis then showed the woman his driver’s license, which listed the address named in the news story – prompting her to ask Ellis what he knew about the homicides. Ellis then asked her to write an apology letter for him, stating, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do it.” He admitted to her that he had stabbed his girlfriend Angie over an argument.

He then spoke of killing her elderly mother so as not to “leave a witness.”