Charges: Man arrested for murder after sexual assault victim reports blood on carpet
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A Minneapolis man has been charged in connection to a woman's death after another woman, who was reporting her own sexual assault by the suspect, reported him and told police about blood he tried to clean off his carpet.
Emmett Nelson, 47, was charged with one count of second-degree murder for fatally shooting a woman and leaving her body in a Minneapolis alley earlier this month.
According to the criminal complaint, on Aug. 11, police responded to a report from two garbage haulers who found a dead body in an alley near 3639 Knox Avenue North in Minneapolis.
On Aug. 16, a woman identified as Witness A went to the hospital for a sexual assault examination. There, she told medical staff that Nelson had sexually assaulted her on Aug. 12, according to the complaint.
Witness A said Nelson picked her up along with her friend, identified as Witness B. He brought Witness A into his house and, there, she noticed brown spots on his carpet, which he had tried to clean up. He even asked her to help him clean the spots. Witness A later told Witness B about the spots, and Witness B told her it was blood and that Nelson had admitted he shot and killed a woman.
Witness B confirmed her story to police and said that Nelson was "about to get into it with some guys from the lows" when he encountered the victim and shot her.
Nelson reportedly told Witness B that he got scared and threw the victim’s body into his car, stopped in an alley, turned his lights off, threw the victim’s body out of the car, and shot her a second time to make sure she was dead, the complaint states.
According to the complaint, surveillance video captured Nelson’s car in the area between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Aug. 11. The video appears to show the victim chasing Nelson. Later, Nelson is seen driving through the alley when he turns his lights off and stops for a period of time, leaving around 4:23 a.m. The victim’s body was recovered two-and-a-half hours later.
Nelson later told police he was at home at the time of the murder, and suggested that his girlfriend may have had his car during that time, according to the complaint.
During a search of Nelson’s home, police located a carpet vacuum and a bottle of bleach, indicating his attempt to clean up the blood. Spots of blood-like substance were also found on the carpet and on clothing in Nelson’s hamper. DNA testing is currently underway.