Arrests made in Mille Lacs County murder

The Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Department has announced the arrests of two individuals in connection with the death of a man found stuffed inside a tote last week.

Authorities say the body of 25 year old Rodney Pendegayosh was found along the shoreline of Mille Lacs Lake by highway workers.  21-year old Bradley Weyaus has been charged with second degree murder. His girlfriend…21-year old Alexis Elling…has also been arrested.

Sheriff Kyle Burton says the circumstances surrounding the case are a bit unusual.  “It’s not every day that someone recovers a partially dismembered body in a plastic tote.  The fact that it appears at this time the body was moved several times before being placed on the shore of Mille Lacs lake…that’s odd.”

Burton says the killing may be tied to the victim’s involvement in the fentanyl death of the girlfriend’s brother earlier this year.  He says Weyaus is jailed on $600,000 dollars bond. The bail for Elling has been set as $500,000 dollars.