Newspaper Article

I was looking for something positive to write about. Right now my life is so boring that there really is nothing going on to write about.

I do not know why this missing girl is in my every thought. I find myself looking in every car that passes. I think about her all the time. That could be because I have daughters or kids in general and I could not even imagine what her family is going through. I remember a time when Derek was a baby and I thought that he went missing. I was outside hanging clothes on the line ~ I would bend over to grab an article of clothing check to be sure he was right there. Hang the article of clothing on the line and repeat this process. I was new to town and not very trusting. One time when I checked to be sure that he was there, he was not there! I almost went crazy ~ running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I was so close to calling the police when I found him playing just beyond a bush right next door. Another scary incident happened when we first moved out here. Tyler and I had been in the yard. I came in the house to use the bathroom. We live in the wide-open country. No trees nothing! I figured that at 3-years-old Tyler would be just fine playing for a very short time while I pee. I went back out ~ no Tyler! I called and called his name. I checked the vehicles parked in the back. I ran around the house ~ inside and out ~ calling his name. Still no Tyler. I was fit to be tied. I thought someone had driven up and snatched him right from the yard. I was standing on the step talking to the baby-sitter (at the time) and asked her if he had ridden his bike down to her house when I heard him sneeze or something. That little bugger was under the step the whole time. I was standing right on top of him hollering his name and he did not answer me. I was so mad when I found him he is lucky that I did not paddle his little butt! He thought that I was mad at him because I was yelling so loud. I had to explain to him that I was afraid that someone had stolen him. Not to mention the car incident with the girls not so long ago either. So I can not imagine the agony of having a missing child for hours, days, weeks, months, or years. It is just unfathomable.

The positive attitude is slipping ~ it has been too long and the temperatures have been so cold. Okay here is the positive ~ maybe someone is holding her captive in a nice warm place. They find her so beautiful that they just want to look at her and they have not harmed Dru in any way!

I have the web site for the local paper open right now ~ everyday there is something about Rodriguez or Dru Sjodin. I caught a glimpse of something about a bloodstain in a car and a news release that is coming on in just a few minutes.

This is the newspaper article:

First evidence to link Rodriguez, Sjodin

St. Paul newspaper reports blood match: Stains found in suspect’s car, investigation sources say

By Stephen J. Lee

Herald Staff Writer

Bloodstains matching Dru Sjodin’s blood type were found in the car that police say was used by Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. to abduct her, the St. Paul Pioneer Press is reporting today.

The Pioneer Press reported that “sources close to the investigation,” said the blood was found in the maroon 2002 Mercury Sable Rodriguez bought at a Grand Forks dealership in June.

Sources in Grand Forks, including Police Chief John Packett and State’s Attorney Peter Welte, would not comment on the report when told of it Thursday night.

The reported bloodstains are the first major piece of physical evidence revealed by sources close to the investigation that would link Rodriguez to Sjodin.

Otherwise, detectives have remained tight-lipped about their investigation, even having many of the facts in court records sealed from public view.

According to the sources in the Pioneer Press story, an arrest warrant was issued Monday after a preliminary DNA analysis determined that the blood in Rodriguez’s car could well be that of Sjodin. A more extensive analysis was then ordered.

Investigators who interviewed Rodriguez also found some of his responses to be “inconsistent,” the sources said. Rodriguez did acknowledge that he was at the Grand Forks mall but denied having any contact with Sjodin.

The sources said authorities also have either eyewitnesses or surveillance tapes that place a man fitting Rodriguez’s description at Columbia Mall the day Sjodin disappeared, the Pioneer Press reported.

Sjodin, a 22-year-old UND student, was abducted about 5 p.m. Nov. 22, police say, an hour after leaving her job at Victoria’s Secret in the mall. Rodriguez’s car remains in the custody of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in Bemidji, since it was impounded last week, a law enforcement source close to the investigation told the Herald.

Police have distributed photos of the car from several angles, asking the public for any information they might have about seeing the car the weekend Sjodin disappeared.

Police also have said for days that they have evidence that Rodriguez used the car in kidnapping Sjodin but have not revealed the nature of the evidence.

Rodriguez bought the car in June, paying cash with a check from his sister, said the salesman who sold it. On a document filed in Grand Forks District Court, where he asked for a court-appointed attorney as an “indigent,” Rodriguez said the car was worth $10,000 and was his only asset listed.

Rodriguez drove the car to his job hanging drywall at a construction site in McIntosh, Minn., on Nov. 24, said Jose DeLeon, the Crookston man who hired him to work on a four-man crew.

Law enforcement officers searched the car at the job site last week, said Mark Bodunov, the drywall contractor who hired DeLeon’s crew. Rodriguez told him the search was because he had been at JC Penny store at Columbia Mall the day “something happened,” Bodunov said.

Bodunov’s son, Philip, told the Herald that Rodriguez did not come to work Nov. 22, although two others on his crew did work.

Rodriguez’s car was impounded shortly after it was searched last week.

DeLeon said Rodriguez last worked for him Nov. 26 and that the job in McIntosh was completed by then.

Rodriguez was arrested Monday night at the Crookston home owned by his mother, where he has lived since May 1 when he was released after 23 years in prison.

The news conference gives no new news ~ Dru is still missing. I was hoping whole-heartedly she had been found.