A newly unsealed court filing states that Vance Boelter and his wife were “preppers” with a contingency plan in the chance of impending catastrophe.
The federal complaint alleges that at some point, Boelter had given his wife a “bailout plan” to flee to a relative’s residence just beyond Menomonie, Wis., should a disaster unfold. Part of “prepping” includes anticipating and adapting to “impending conditions of calamity,” according to one researcher’s definition.
The court filing was written during Boelter’s 43-hour evasion from law enforcement under the belief he may have fled Minnesota following the pair of shootings that killed Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and injured state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Boelter was later apprehended in a field outside Green Isle, Minn.
Police stopped Boelter’s wife, Jenny, along with her four children, more than 100 miles northwest of the metro area late Saturday morning, according to the complaint and the Mille Lacs County Sheriff. The stop occurred well over 150 miles northwest of the destination of the “bailout plan.”
In a search of the vehicle, officers found a safe, passports for Jenny Boelter and each of the kids, at least $10,000 in cash, and a handgun in the glove box as well as another handgun inside a cooler. The filing notes that Vance Boelter had recently sent the family a group text proclaiming that “Dad went to war” and saying that people with guns may be showing up at their house.
The complaint, unsealed by a federal judge Wednesday, offers the latest detail into Vance Boelter’s life that was punctuated with a nonlinear career jumping from food service to international missionary work, local political appointments and funeral homes. An exact motive for the shootings has yet to be announced.
The search for the 57-year-old man from Green Isle drew the largest manhunt in the state’s history and prompted a $50,000 reward from the FBI for information leading to his arrest. By Sunday, investigators narrowed their search to Green Isle where they found an abandoned Buick with a handwritten note inside directed to the FBI, signed by “Dr. Vance Luther Boelter.” The letter admitted he was the “shooter at large in Minnesota.”
Boelter faces six federal charges in connection with the shootings. The federal charges described extensive planning by Boelter to surveil his potential targets, many of whom were Democratic politicians according to various lists he kept. It further said Boelter donned a realistic mask and dressed as a police officer when he approached the homes of Hoffman, Hortman, Sen. Ann Rest of New Hope and Rep. Kristin Bahner of Maple Grove, all Democrats.
