![]() “He jumped into his pickup truck and drove literally into Grand Forks on fumes,” Walker said. Walker said Lang called her about Sjodin shortly after the dropped call, and in turn, she called Sjodin’s father, Allan, who lived in the Twin Cities. “For a call to get interupted the way that hers did that’s just not normal,” Hedlund said. Sjodin was doing something people did every day in Grand Forks - she got done with work and walked to the car to drive home, Walker said. “She was just everybody’s friend.” “We all knew deep within our guts that something desperately was wrong,” Schmalz said. “She loved doing volunteer work and her jobs. Sjodin was a responsible woman who made and kept commitments, whether it was volunteering to help with underprivileged dancers or the UND Clothesline Project, which is dedicated to victims and survivors of violence. Sjodin did not skip commitments, and she always answered text messages, said Schmalz, who was 20 years old at the time. But there were red flags that quickly made investigators, family members, friends and reporters realize this was not an ordinary missing persons case. “But the uplifting from the people who reached out carried us and still does until this today, more than I can put into words.” ‘Everyone’s daughter’ In the first hours, some thought Sjodin was another missing person who would eventually show up, said Hedlund, who was the public information officer for the Grand Forks Police Department when she was abducted. “In the midst of being in such despair, I can’t even describe the feelings of knowing I’m never going to have my daughter back,” Walker said. She was just on the doorstep of so much promise.” As horrific as the crime was, the search and condolences that flowed in from everywhere showed there was good in the world, that people truly cared about Sjodin, her mother, Linda Walker, said. “I think people did very much feel touched by this young woman. “It’s not just that they remember this defendant, what he did and that he is on death row,” Wrigley said. Colleagues, friends and even strangers on the street who followed the case still bring it up when they see him. Though the search ended in tragedy, her story continues to live past the murder, former U.S. He now is the only person who committed a crime in North Dakota on death row, though he is trying to appeal the conviction. Was sentenced to death for kidnapping, raping and murdering Sjodin. There was evidence the student had been raped and murdered, according to court documents. Sjodin’s body was found April 17, 2004, in a ravine near Crookston, Minn., half-clothed and with her wrists tied behind her back. ![]() Hundreds volunteered to search for her in the wake of the disappearance, and agencies from Minnesota, North Dakota and Canada along with the FBI offered their assistance. “She was a person who made this world a better place.” Sjodin’s disappearance sparked an outpouring of concern and sympathy from across the nation for multiple reasons, whether it was because of her kind personality or because people could relate to her. ![]() “Dru saw everyone for their unique qualities,” Schmalz said. During a phone call with her boyfriend, Chris Lang, the line suddenly disconnected, but not before she uttered, “Oh my God.”.īy all accounts, the young woman loved life, cared for others and would do anything within her power to help anyone feel special, said Britni Schmalz, a Minot teacher who was in Sjodin’s sorority, Gamma Phi Beta, when her friend was taken. The University of North Dakota student from Pequot Lakes, Minn., a small town of 2,100 about 200 miles southeast of Grand Forks, was taken in a public setting while leaving at Columbia Mall. “You can picture her as someone in your life,” he said. 22, 2003, from a mall parking lot in Grand Forks has resonated so strongly with those who heard her story, said East Grand Forks Police Chief Michael Hedlund. It’s one of the reasons her abduction on Nov.
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