A man has been charged with second-degree murder in the slaying last winter of a Jordan woman whose body was left in an outbuilding on a vacant residential property.
John Joseph Peterson, 41, was charged Friday in Scott County District Court with the murder of 46-year-old Tabitha Renee Justice. Police found her body on Jan. 28 in the 200 block of Quaker Avenue in Jordan. She died of a gunshot wound in the head.
Peterson has been in custody at the Le Sueur County jail since last week on other charges and will be transferred to the Scott County jail for arraignment on the murder charge, according to Jordan police.
Justice had been reported missing shortly before police found her body. The 25-acre parcel where she was found belongs to Bobby and Steve’s Auto World, which gave police permission to search the property.
A manager for Bobby and Steve’s told the Minnesota Star Tribune in February that at least one Justice family member had rented a house on the property. The most recent tenant had moved out last fall to allow the Minnesota Department of Transportation to redo the Quaker Avenue exit off Hwy. 169.
Paul Walsh of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.
