Phone associated with accused assassin’s home traveled to Dubai, Nepal, India, and Turkey, report says

A cell phone associated with the Minnesota residence of accused political assassin Vance Luther Boelter went on extensive travel over the past three years — including trips to Dubai, Turkey, and India — the Oversight Project reported Tuesday.

Based on a geofence analysis of Boelter’s home in Green Isle, Minn., the Oversight Project said it found a “unique device” that it tracked going back three years.

The Oversight Project used the phone’s unique Ad ID number that is picked up on various phone apps to track its travel near the family home in Sibley County, around the Twin Cities area, nationally, and internationally.

“What’s more interesting is the amount of international travel linked to this device — visits to Africa, Nepal, Turkey, India, and Dubai,” the Oversight Project posted on X. “Also visited some major U.S. cities such as Washington D.C., and other places like the Chicago Yacht Club.”

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Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News that the investigation of the phone is just beginning, so the group does not yet have explanations for the locations and patterns of travel.

The phone data seems to relate to things Boelter has posted online about his employment history and travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

Boelter, 57, was charged June 16 in federal court in Minnesota with two counts of murder, two counts of stalking, and two firearms charges related to stalking. He was captured late June 15 in Sibley County, Minn., after the largest police manhunt in Minnesota history.

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A cell phone associated with accused Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter pinged across the United States and internationally.Image from the Oversight Project

He is charged with the assassination of Democrat Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, in their Brooklyn Park, Minn., home at about 3:30 a.m. June 14. Boelter is also charged with shooting and attempting to kill Democrat state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in their home in Champlin, Minn.

Federal prosecutors said Boelter did online research on four legislators’ homes prior to his shooting rampage. He allegedly visited one home in Maple Grove, but no one was home. He reportedly parked down the block from another home in New Hope, but was scared off by a squad car from the New Hope Police Department.

The suspect was disguised as a police officer, wearing a “hyper-realistic” silicone mask that covered his entire head. In his vehicle, police say they found what was described as a handwritten “hit list” with the names of more than 50 lawmakers and other public officials.

'We’re doing farming and fishing projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo.'

In the vehicle Boelter allegedly abandoned at the Hortman home, police found notebooks with a handwritten list of politicians, lawmakers, and Planned Parenthood officials. The list included Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (DFL), U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Rep. Hortman, former Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman (D), and several officials associated with Planned Parenthood North Central States.

According to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court, Boelter got the Hoffmans to open their front door around 2 a.m. June 14 by pounding and shouting, “This is the police! Open the door!” When the senator and his wife tried to push Boelter back out the door, he shot them both, according to the federal criminal complaint. The Hoffmans are recovering in a hospital. A statement released by the Hoffman family said the senator was shot nine times and his wife suffered eight bullet wounds.

Police in nearby Brooklyn Park almost intercepted the suspect on the front porch of the Hortman residence at 3:30 a.m., but he opened fire on officers as they arrived, according to the FBI. Boelter then allegedly burst into the home and shot the Hortmans to death. He also allegedly shot their golden retriever, Gilbert, who had to be euthanized due to his grave injuries.

More than three hours after the Hortman killings, Boelter reportedly approached a man at a North Minneapolis bus stop and asked to buy an e-bike from him. The men took the bus to the witness’ residence, where Boelter paid him $900 for the e-bike and a used Buick sedan, prosecutors said.

The suspect was able to evade a massive police dragnet for nearly 40 hours. Police found the abandoned Buick on a rural Sibley County highway on June 15. A police aerial drone spotted Boelter in a wooded area about one mile from his Green Isle residence. Boelter put his hands up and surrendered to a SWAT team around 9:15 p.m.

Employment history

According to Boelter’s LinkedIn page and a video he made for a course in the funeral industry, he founded a company called Red Lion Group dedicated to increasing the food supply in the populous Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It appears Red Lion consisted of Boelter and his wife, Jennifer. There is no indication that he was associated with other entities named Red Lion, such as the United Kingdom-based charity or the hospitality holding company.

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FBI agents stage in a neighborhood in Green Isle, Minn., on June 15, 2025. Law enforcement agencies were searching for Vance Boelter, a suspect in the killing of DFL state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman. Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

In a LinkedIn post in 2023, Boelter said he was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo “working on several projects.”

“Red Lion Group had a great meeting with the new governor of Congo Central to talk about private business projects,” Boelter wrote. “That are all moving forward in that a [sic] province.”

In an undated video posted online, Boelter explained his food-industry history and desire to help the African nation produce more of its own food.

“The company I was working for at the time wasn’t interested in doing anything in Africa. So I talked with my wife, and we decided I would just put in my two-week notice and we’d just go off on our own to try to do these projects to help out in Africa,” he said. “So we’re doing farming and fishing projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

The Red Lion Group website domain name was registered on Jan. 25, 2023, according to the domain lookup site Whois. The domain is set to expire on April 15, 2026. The website does not appear to be connected to the internet. The domain ownership information is masked.

One of Boelter’s online biographies makes a fleeting reference to international travel. He and his wife are the registered owners of Praetorian Guard Security Systems, which appears to be little more than a website and some Ford vehicles customized to look like police cruisers.

Some of the addresses associated with the company on state records are residential homes. The company’s registered office address in Prior Lake, Minn., is a divorce law firm. There is no listing on LinkedIn, nor any employees under the company name.

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A tow truck removes an abandoned Buick sedan allegedly driven by accused assassin Vance Boelter as police search the area on 301st Avenue in Belle Plaine, Minn., on June 15, 2025.Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

According to Vance Boelter’s biography on the Praetorian Guard website, he “has been involved with security situations in Eastern Europe, Africa, North America and the Middle East, including the West Bank, Southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.” It does not provide details on the “security situations.” The website has been taken offline, but some of its content is accessible on the Wayback Machine.

A lifelong friend of Boelter, David W. Carlson, said Boelter was having financial difficulties recently. Boelter’s LinkedIn page said he was “looking to get back into the U.S. food industry” and was open to senior-level jobs.

Southern Minnesota family

Boelter grew up in Sleepy Eye, a town of 3,400 in southern Minnesota, about 110 miles southwest of Minneapolis. His father, Donald LuVerne Boelter, was a legendary baseball coach for 34 years at Sleepy Eye Public School and earlier at Ceylon High School. With 309 career wins, nine conference titles, and a .620 winning percentage, Donald Boelter was inducted into the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2009. He died in September 2013 at age 80.

Vance Boelter’s mother is 90 and still lives in southern Minnesota.

His brother, Tarry Boelter, was a star baseball player at the University of Minnesota and briefly played for the Minnesota Twins. He was a 350-game-winning baseball coach at Murray County Central High School in Slayton, Minn. He was inducted into the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2013.

Vance Boelter married the former Jennifer Doskocil in Winona, Minn., on October. 4, 1997. At the time, Boelter lived in Arcadia, Minn., and his new wife was from Springbrook, Wis. They went on to have five children.

Boelter’s jobs took the family across the country, living in Muldrow, Okla., Shakopee, Minn., Sheboygan Falls, Wis., Inver Grove Heights, Minn., Gaylord, Minn., and Green Isle, Minn., according to public databases.

Boelter had been a plant manager at Lettieri’s LLC, a manufacturer of food-to-go products in Shakopee, Minn. The company was later purchased by Greencore Group. While working at Lettieri’s, Boelter was appointed to the Dakota-Scott Workforce Investment Board by the Dakota County Board.

In 1994, Boelter worked at a processing plant for Gold’n Plump chicken in Cold Spring, Minn.

Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

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