A 20-year-old missing from St. Paul was found deceased about a week after he was last seen.

St. Paul police issued an alert in June saying Sebastian “Sebas” Santibanez was an endangered missing person. He had last been seen walking away from his residence in the Midway area about 5 a.m. June 16, according to a bulletin from police that was distributed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

He was located deceased, under circumstances that weren’t suspicious, on June 25, according to police. The BCA canceled the missing-persons alert Friday after he was officially identified.

— Mara H. Gottfried

Report of armed student investigated

Police in Cottage Grove are investigating a report made Friday morning regarding a Park High School student who reportedly bragged about having a weapon in their backpack.

Park High School officials told police they received a call from a parent of a student around 8:30 a.m. who said they overheard another student on the bus saying they had a weapon in their backpack.

The Cottage Grove Police Department’s school resource officer was notified.

Park High was placed in a hold for about two hours while responding units and school officials investigated the allegation, officials said. No weapons were found.

“The result of the investigation is that no threats had been made and there was no danger to students or staff,” police said in a statement.

— Mary Divine

Boyfriend charged with killing gymnast

A 23-year-old man has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the fatal shooting of a national gymnastics champion in his apartment near the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus.

Chad Richards made an initial appearance Friday via video in Walworth County Court.

Kara Welsh, 21, suffered multiple gunshot wounds following an altercation Aug. 30, according to a criminal complaint.

She was found in a pool of blood after Richards called 911. He told investigators that the two were arguing when he said Welsh grabbed his gun from a nightstand. Richards said he wrestled the gun away and shot Welsh because he “feared for his life,” the complaint continued. He told investigators that Welsh was his girlfriend.

Richards was being held on a $1 million bond. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 28.

Richards, of Loves Park, Ill., was listed on the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 2021-22 wrestling team roster.

Welsh, who was from Plainfield, Ill., was a member of the Warhawk gymnastics team and last year took the individual national title on vault at the NCAA Division III championships.

— Associated Press

Inmate charged with killing his cellmate

A white inmate doing time at a maximum security prison in Wisconsin for trying to kill his mother strangled his cellmate for being Black and gay, investigators said.

Prosecutors charged Jackson Vogel, 24, on Thursday with first-degree intentional homicide with hate crime and repeat offender penalty enhancers in the killing of 19-year-old Micah Laureano at the Green Bay Correctional Institution.

Laureano was sentenced in January to two years — one behind bars and one on extended supervision — for being a party to substantial battery.

The criminal complaint against Vogel includes grim details about what happened in the cell on Aug. 27, where Laureano was put with Vogel just a few days earlier. A guard found Laureano’s body hanging from the top bunk with his hands and ankles tied together with orange fabric.

— Associated Press