Authorities still try to solve 12-year-old Turcotte case

Staff and wire report

DEVILS LAKE, N.D. — The Ramsey County sheriff says authorities are still trying to solve the slaying of a Montana man 12 years ago.

The body of 19-year-old Russell Turcotte, of Wolf Point, Montana, was found in a rural tree grove in the eastern North Dakota county on Nov. 5, 2002. Authorities said the body had likely been there for months. Turcotte had last been seen in July 2002 at a truck stop in Grand Forks.

Turcotte was returning from a Rainbow Coalition gathering in Minnesota to which he had hitchhiked. He called his mother in Wolf Point the evening of July 13, 2002, asking for money to take a bus back to Montana to be able to get to a wedding. She wired the money to him the next morning, but he never picked it up.

His location was a mystery until his body was found in November of that year.

His father, William Turcotte, made a plea for information about his son's disappearance, and later for the authorities to find Russell Turcotte's killer.

Ramsey County Sheriff Steve Nelson said authorities review the case file about twice a year. But he says to this point, they haven't come up with anything new. He says a possible suspect was identified a few years ago but later eliminated based on interviews and evidence.