Police detain suspected assassin’s wife with cash, passports, weapon, ammunition

The wife of the man suspected of assassinating the former speaker of the Minnesota House and her husband was detained by police about 85 miles north of the Twin Cities riding in a vehicle containing cash, passports, a weapon, and ammunition.

Jennifer Boelter, 51, of Green Isle, Minn., was detained after police stopped the vehicle near Onamia, Minn. Police had been tracking the vehicle, television station KSTP reported. Three relatives of Boelter were also in the vehicle, the station said but did not elaborate.

'I'm going to be gone for a while. May be dead shortly.'

Meanwhile, a massive manhunt continues for Vance Leroy Boelter, 57, a security company co-owner who police said shot and killed Democrat Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their Brooklyn Park, Minn., home about 3:30 a.m. June 14.

Police said they believe Boelter shot Democrat state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife about 90 minutes earlier in their home in Champlin, Minn., about five miles from the Hortman home. The Hoffmans survived the assassination attempt.

On June 15, police said they found Boelter’s abandoned vehicle and some of his belongings near Belle Plaine, Minn., in Sibley County — about 15 miles from Boelter’s home in Green Isle. The belongings included a cowboy hat similar to what he was wearing on security video around 6 a.m. June 14.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz described the shootings as acts of targeted political violence.

During the shootings, Boelter was dressed as a police officer and wearing a latex mask disguise that made him appear bald, according to a photo released by the FBI. He drove a black Ford SUV painted like a police cruiser with emergency lights.

Minnesota television stations showed the front door of the Hoffman residence riddled with bullet holes.

After the Hoffman shooting, police in Brooklyn Park went to Hortman’s residence and spotted a man they now say was Boelter coming out the front door. He immediately fired at the officers before retreating into the home and escaping through the rear entrance, police said. He left his police-style SUV in the driveway with emergency lights on.

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Brooklyn Park police officers search a vehicle entering a neighborhood on June 14, 2025 in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. They were searching for the man suspected of assassinating former Minnesota House speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman.Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Boelter’s SUV, left sitting in the Hortmans’ driveway, contained fliers with the message “No Kings” on them. That was an apparent reference to protests staged across the country June 14 in opposition to President Donald J. Trump.

A hit list was also in the vehicle containing the names of up to 70 people, including Gov. Tim Walz, Hortman, and Hoffman. The hit list contained references to Planned Parenthood and a number of pro-abortion lawmakers, the New York Post and other media outlets reported. It included 11 lawmakers from Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

During her term as House speaker during the 2023 legislative session, Hortman was the “driving force” behind legislation to “codify abortion rights,” according to a June 15 Minnesota Star Tribune article.

Hortman, a Catholic who once taught Sunday school at the Church of St. Timothy in Blaine, Minn., was inspired to run for office in 1998 to oppose an incumbent who wanted to ban so-called gay marriage in Minnesota.

Walz had appointed Boelter to a four-year term on the Governor’s Workforce Development Board in December 2019. Boelter was appointed to a two-year term on the Minnesota Governor’s Workforce Development Council by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton in June 2016. Senator Hoffman was also a member of the board during Boelter’s tenure. Boelter was listed as the general manager of a 7-Eleven store on the board’s website.

RELATED: 'Politically motivated assassination': Minnesota Democrat rep and husband gunned down — state senator, wife wounded

David Carlson, a childhood friend who rented a room to suspected assassin Vance Boelter, reads a text message Boelter allegedly sent him hours after Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot to death.Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

David Carlson, a childhood friend of Boelter who rented him a room in his North Minneapolis home, said Boelter was a strong supporter of President Trump, according to KARE-TV.

Carlson sat on the front porch of his home June 14 and read texts that he said he received from Boelter that said, “I made some choices and you guys don’t know anything about this, but I’m going to be gone for a while. May be dead shortly.”

Alpha News obtained security video said to be of Boelter outside the home in the 4800 block of Fremont Avenue North at about 6 a.m. June 14. Wearing a light cowboy hat, Boelter used what appeared to be a hammer to smash the front passenger window in a black police-style SUV before walking away down an alley.

Owned security company

Boelter and his wife operated Praetorian Guard Security Services LLC. The company was first registered with the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office in September 2018. Although the business registration for the company lapsed twice, it is currently in good standing through December 2026, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State.

A Ford police SUV decked out with decals that read “PRAETORIAN” on the doors was parked in the driveway of a home in Gaylord, Minn., that the Boelters were apparently renting in April 2023, according to Google Maps. The address matches that of the principal executive office address listed on the LLC business registration with the secretary of state. Jenny Boelter is listed as the manager.

The mailing address for Praetorian Guard Security Services is in Green Isle, Minn., a rural area along 341st Avenue, about 15 miles from the Gaylord address and 50 miles southwest of Minneapolis. According to public credit records, the Boelters are the owners of the Green Isle property, which has an assessed value of $376,000 and a market value estimated at $545,000.

The Praetorian Security Services website is somewhat bare bones. Jennifer Boelter is listed as president and CEO. Vance Boelter is listed as the director of security patrols.

“Praetorian Guard Security Services is residential armed home security for your family, home and property,” the website states. “We are a licensed service in Minnesota helping to keep your home, property and those you love safe. We are proud to offer a team of security officers who are well trained, diligent and extremely detailed.”

According to Vance Boelter’s biography on the 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 company offers only armed security services, the website says. “We drive the same make and model of vehicles that many police departments use in the U.S. Currently we drive Ford Explorer Utility Vehicles.”

Boelter’s LinkedIn page does not include any information on Praetorian Guard Security Services. It lists Boelter’s current job as CEO of Red Lion Group, based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The LinkedIn page also says Boelter is “actively applying” for full-time jobs with titles such as director of operations, vice president, general manager, and president.

Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park was shot and killed in her home on June 14, 2025. State Sen. John Hoffman of Champlin was shot and seriously wounded in his home 90 minutes earlier.Minnesota Legislature

Boelter was part of a business group that met with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s ambassador to the United States on Nov. 30, 2018, in Worthington, Minn.

According to an article in The Globe newspaper, Boelter spoke at the meeting, suggesting to the ambassador that 20 businesses in Minnesota team up to train Congolese workers in a variety of occupations in America. The article said Boelter was “representing the oil refinery chain Marathon Petroleum Corp.”

In an undated video posted on social media that appeared to be part of an online course in the funeral industry, Boelter said he was working six days a week for Wulff Funeral Homes and Metro First Call, primarily doing body removals. He said the jobs include removing bodies from active crime scenes and delivering them to the medical examiner’s office in Hennepin County, Minn.

Boelter said his Red Lion Group’s work in Congo includes farming and fishing projects to help increase the food supply for the country’s more than 100 million people. He said he took the funeral home jobs to help “pay the bills” while working on his ventures for the central African nation.

Videos circulated on X appear to show Boelter doing Christian preaching in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2022 and 2023.

Boelter’s LinkedIn page lists employment with companies including 7-Eleven, Greencore, Del Monte, and Johnsonville, a Wisconsin-based sausage company.

Vance and Jennifer Boelter are the parents of five grown children. They have been married since October 1997.

A possible angle to the tragedy that was discussed widely on social media but largely ignored by legacy outlets was that Hortman bucked her party and joined House Republicans to strip subsidized MinnesotaCare health coverage from some 17,000 adult illegal aliens in the Gopher State.

Some Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party lawmakers said the move to strip the coverage from illegal aliens would leave them “out to die,” according to the Minnesota Star Tribune’s June 9 edition.

“What I worry about is that people will lose their health insurance,” Hortman said after the vote. “I know people will be hurt by that vote.” For a moment, Hortman choked up with emotion before the television cameras before continuing. “We worked very hard to try to get a budget deal that wouldn’t include that provision.”

Minnesota Republicans had threatened to shut down state government if the measure failed to pass. They estimated removing illegal alien adults from MinnesotaCare would save tens of millions of dollars per year. The change will take effect at the end of 2025.

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