Manhunt Over: Mendota Heights Murder Suspect Arrested

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- After a three-day manhunt, police have apprehended the man accused of killing a woman following a string of crimes in Mendota Heights over the weekend.

Lucifer Nguyen, 44, was arrested late Monday night without incident in the north metro, the Dakota County Sheriff's Office says. He was not armed.

Police had been searching for him since Saturday, when authorities say he went on a deadly crime spree, robbing a woman in her own bedroom, holding up a worker at a senior center and killing 48-year-old Beverly Cory as she worked at her office in Mendota Heights.

Just after 11 p.m. Monday, authorities apprehended Nguyen during a traffic stop near the intersection of Highway 65 and 117th Avenue Northeast in Blaine.

Sources told WCCO it was his brothers who were with him at the time of the arrest, and it was them who helped officers close in on the most wanted man in Minnesota.

Nguyen is being held in the county jail on charges related to the death of Cory, as well as other crimes, such as kidnapping and armed robbery.

Nguyen made his first court appearance Tuesday morning. His bail was set at $1.5 million without conditions, $1 million with conditions. He made no plea.

Dakota County Sheriff Tim Leslie says believes Nguyen was a desperate man on the run from the law.

"I'm offering up the theory that he was a desperate man taking desperate measures to escape," he said.

Desperate they say because he had already held a grandmother up at gunpoint in her own home, fled from police -- going airborne for 100 feet and crashing -- then running to a senior center, holding an empoyee at gunpoint then crossing the street to shoot Cory in the head as she was simply working in her office.

"This crime is shocking to all of us in law enforcement and prosecution community. It's shocking to all of our citizens in our community," Dakota County Attorney James Bakstrom said.

Cory, a financial adviser who worked in the building where she was shot, had no connection to Nguyen.

Nguyen, who legally changed his name to Lucifer in 1997, was out on bail when he allegedly committed the weekend crime spree. Court records show he was slated to appear in Wisconsin later this month on battery and drug charges.

Ngyuen's next court appearance is slated for Aug. 14.