Man accused of fatally shooting woman and leaving body in vacant Twin Cities home for weeks

A 41-year-old man with a long criminal history was charged Friday with fatally shooting a woman and leaving her body on a vacant residential property in Jordan, where she was discovered many weeks later.

John Joseph Peterson, of Jordan, was charged in Scott County District Court with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting of Tabitha Renee Justice, 46, whose body was found by police on the afternoon of Jan. 28 on the parcel in the 200 block of Quaker Avenue.

Justice had been reported missing to law enforcement shortly before her body was found, police said.

Peterson currently is in jail in Le Sueur County for a probation violation for being a felon in possession of ammunition. Court records do not list an attorney for him for the murder charge.

Peterson’s criminal history in Minnesota includes a second-degree assault conviction in Lake County. He pleaded guilty to that charge filed in 2004 and had an attempted murder count dismissed. He has also been convicted twice for weapons or ammunition offenses and twice for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

According to the criminal complaint:

On Jan. 28, a woman reported to police that she had not seen Justice, her niece, since Dec. 10. Police went to her last known address on Quaker. The house was vacant. The officers checked an outbuilding and found Justice’s body there.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office arrived that same afternoon and saw she had been shot in the back of the head. A 9 mm bullet casing was near her body.

Justice’s former husband told law enforcement that Justice’s family had not lived there for about two years. She had been moving from place to place since the past summer and had been staying with him for a couple of days.

Investigators determined that Justice’s Facebook account was active on Dec. 19 and traced it to her family’s home in Jordan. Justice left on Dec. 20 sometime between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Family members said they never saw her again.

Numerous friends told law enforcement that Justice had a relationship with Peterson and had been living with him. One friend described him as mentally ill and physically aggressive. At one point, he accused Justice of cheating on him, the friend said.

Peterson kicked her out of his home, and kept finding and following her, said the friend, who last connected with Justice on Dec. 18 via video chat.

Investigators spoke with Peterson on Jan. 14 and again on Feb. 4. He described his relationship with Justice as “friends with benefits,” the complaint read. He said he last saw her on Dec. 20 or Dec. 21 at his home. He said they spoke for about 15 minutes.

He acknowledged having two 9 mm handguns at home in a safe but said he did not have access to them because of his felony record.

A witness told law enforcement that Peterson moved back to his parents’ home on March 21 to wait “until [things] cool down,” the complaint noted.

The witness said Peterson routinely carries a handgun in his pocket. He said he didn’t want to talk about Justice’s death except to make a joke, showed no emotion and tried to blame a neighbor, the witness added.

On April 11, investigators searched a home in the northern Minnesota town of Hovland, where Peterson’s parents live, and he was arrested for the probation violation. With him was a backpack containing a 9 mm handgun. The search of the property also turned up spent 9 mm casings with the same identifying stamp as the one near Justice’s body.

Peterson offered investigators no new information about Justice’s death and said “she jealous,” the complaint continued.

Analysis by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension determined the casing near Justice’s body was shot by the same gun seized from Peterson’s backpack. The BCA also found two of Peterson’s fingerprints on the gun’s grip.