MN: Mother charged with killing daughter, 16, hiding body in car
Patty
Warren Wolfe
(Minneapolis/St.Paul) Star Tribune
Friday, March 16, 2001
A woman who had just moved from Minnesota to Mason City, Iowa, was charged today with
murdering her 16-year-old daughter, whose body was found in the trunk of the woman's car.
Julie Mae Terrell, 36, is accused of killing her daughter, Lauralee Eve Terrell, with a
shotgun during an argument two weeks ago at their house in Madison Lake, Minn., near
Mankato.
Terrell is being held in the Mason City jail. She was charged with second-degree murder in
Mankato.
According to investigators, Terrell and her daughter reportedly argued the morning of
March 1. After the girl threatened her mother with a shotgun, Terrell got control of the
gun and fired one shot at her daughter.
"We don't believe it was accidental," said Capt. Will Purvis of the Blue Earth County
Sheriff's Office in Mankato.
He said Terrell apparently wrapped her daughter's body in a blanket, put it in the trunk
of her car, then called a friend to help her move to Mason City and left town.
The criminal complaint said a boyfriend, Michael Scott Hansen, who lived with Julie
Terrell, was not present and did not know about the shooting. However, Terrell called him
from Mason City and asked his help in disposing of the body, the complaint says.
Authorities searched the car Thursday and found the body, which was taken to the Ramsey
County medical examiner's office in St. Paul for an autopsy.
Terrell told authorities she used a saw to cut off her daughter's legs before putting the
body in the car, the criminal complaint said.
DedNdogYrs
putting the body in the car, the criminal complaint said.>
Incredible! What kind of mouthing off could a teenager possibly do to deserve
being murdered with a shotgun, even if she hit her mother? And what kind of
mother could mutilate her own child's dead body? I wonder what she was
thinking as she cut her daughter's legs off. I wonder how the girl was able to
survive 16 years with a mother who is capable of this.
Dogs & children first.
