College student murdered in Minot

An 18-year-old woman is found dead in an apartment...police suspect she was murdered. The detec...  More »

An 18-year-old woman is found dead in an apartment...police suspect she was murdered. The detective in charge of the investigation says it's an unusual circumstance for a homicide in the Minot area - a case where it's possible that the murder victim did not know the murderer. (Lt. Dan Strandberg, Minot Police Detective) In my experience the victim and the suspects have always had a close relationship. However in this case we're not able to ascertain any of that and it is a little unsettling, yes) He's talking about the death of a Minot State University student who was killed in her north Minot apartment - apparently by an unuknown intruder - over the weekend. Minot police said today 18-year old Anita Knutson, a Velva High School graduate of 2006 and a native of Butte, was found dead in her apartment yesterday. The young woman's body was discovered at this apartment Monday afternoon by her father, who was worried about her after not being able to contact her over the weekend. (Lt. Dan Strandberg, Minot Police Detective) People who had contact with Anita over the weekend are encouraged to call the Minot Police Department. And anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the Minot Police Department. Strandberg estimated Knutson had been killed Sunday. He says the theory that Knutson was killed by an unknown intruder is just that - he says it's also possible she knew her assailant, but there's no immediate indication of that. The detective won't say what kind of weapon was used in the murder but did say it was easily apparent to police responding to the apartment that the woman had been murdered. An autopsy is being performed in Bismarck. They ask anyone with information about what Anita Knutson had been doing over the weekend contact the Minot Police Department to help them piece together her final hours.  « Less