Anita Carlson (10 of Spades, Minnesota)

[Instrumental music] Bemidji, Minnesota, is a place known for its small-town charm, access to the Mississippi River, and huge statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

One of those unique places in Middle America that is a destination and a place people just pass through, with two long stretches of American freeway, Highway 2 and Highway 89, crossing in the northwest part of town.

And in the summer of '87, the city took on another legacy, home of one of Minnesota's most well-known murder mysteries.

This was one that kind of, uh, rocked everybody just because of its proximity to the city, but yet in the county, and the fact that it wasn't solved right off the bat.

Sergeant Robert Billings works in investigations in the Beltrami County Sheriff's Office.

He knew about the case even before he started investigating it.

And so did Agent Jake Hodapp, who remembers being five years old when this story began.

His dad was an agent for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, where Agent Hodapp now works.

Today, both agencies, state and local, are partnering on the case.

My dad, um, was a BC agent at the time.

Um, I obviously followed in his footsteps in a sense.

And, uh, he worked on this case.

Uh, he would've worked a lot on this case at that time.

And many cases that came out during that time, we'd hear bits and pieces just because, well, that's, that was his life for probably a couple of years.

Now, Jake Hodapp has a longer title, and it's a mouthful: Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Homicide Unit at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in the northern region out of the Bemidji Regional Field Office.

So what that means is basically I'm a state policeman.

Our agency's mission is to assist local agencies with higher-profile investigations or, uh, cases where, which would require more resources.

And so when he began looking at Anita Carlson's case about 14 years ago, he was reading some of his dad's own work.

He's putting together the parts that he only remembers hearing about as a kid.

Well, my dad later became sheriff here at Beltrami County, and he kept that picture of Anita Carlson on his desk.

Back in 1987, when Agent Hodapp was a little kid, 22-year-old Anita Carlson was finishing up a late shift at Pete's Place, which was a gas station and convenience store at the crossroads of Highway 2 and 89.

She normally locked up at around 11:00 PM before heading home for the night.

And the night of June 30th at least started out like all the rest.

Anita called her roommate, Tina, around 10:30, letting her know that she would be home soon after she got done closing up.

And Pete's Place had a procedure for the way it closed: doors locked, lights turned off, security system activated, registers set up for the next day.