A Minnesota woman admitted in a guilty plea Wednesday that she left her newborn son to die on the banks of the Mississippi River in 2003.

Jennifer Matter, 50, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the baby’s death. She will be sentenced April 28.

Matter was arrested May 10, 2022, at her home in Belvidere Township outside Red Wing.

Prosecutors have said DNA evidence also links Matter to a newborn girl found dead in the Mississippi in Red Wing 1999. Matter has not been charged in that case, and she told investigators that the girl was not breathing when she was born.

Teenagers found the baby boy’s body on Dec. 7, 2003, in Frontenac on the shore of Lake Pepin, where the Mississippi River widens.

Medical examiners determined the baby’s death was a homicide, but his cause of death was undetermined.

“I left (the baby) on the beach, walked away, got into my car, and drove away with no intention of returning,” Matter said in the plea agreement.

According to the criminal complaint, Matter said she hoped someone who lived nearby would find him alive. In both abandomnents, Matter told investigators that her life was in turmoil as she struggled with alcohol use and troubles with the law.

Investigators said DNA samples linked both infants to Matter by a genealogy search that led to potential relatives in Goodhue County.

In March 2007, a third infant was found dead in the Mississippi near the Treasure Island casino and resort in Welch. DNA testing at the time indicated that newborn girl was not related to the other two babies, officials said.

All three babies are buried together in Red Wing’s Oakwood Cemetery, after a local couple, Don and Jeanne Madtson, donated the graves and a tombstone in their family plot.

Under Minnesota’s Safe Place for Newborns law, enacted in 2000, a mother or immediate family member of a newborn can place the unharmed child into the hands of a hospital employee on hospital grounds with complete anonymity during the first three days of the child’s life.

— Associated Press

Walz signs bill on miners’ jobless aid

Gov. Tim Walz signed his second bill of the young 2023 legislative session Wednesday, extending unemployment benefits for six months for more than 400 laid-off workers at Northshore Mining.

Northshore Mining shut down May 1, and about 450 workers out of around 580 workers there and at an associated contractor have been laid off. Unemployment benefits normally run out after six months in Minnesota, and payments stopped for many of the workers in November.

Consequently, legislative leaders put the bill on the fast track when the session convened three weeks ago. The Minnesota House voted 127-7 on Monday to approve it, after the Senate passed it 56-10.

Walz noted at the signing ceremony that northeastern Minnesota’s iron mining industry has a long history of ups and down. When times are down, he said, the rest of the state needs to be there.

“This is what it means to legislate, to move things when they’re needed,” Walz said. “Folks have been waiting too long.”

The main reason for the layoffs is a long-running royalty dispute between its owner, Cleveland-Cliffs, and a trust that controls the mineral rights for the mine pit near Babbitt that supplies iron ore for Northshore’s processing plant in Silver Bay. Cleveland-Cliffs has said the royalties are uneconomically high, and that Northshore Mining will remain shut down at least through April.

Silver Bay Mayor Wade LeBlanc said the extended benefits will help keep miners from moving away for jobs elsewhere in the meantime.

Lake County Commissioner Rick Goutermont, who recently retired from Northshore Mining, said he and his family would have had to move away without unemployment benefits in earlier shutdowns.

The bill extends the unemployment benefits for another six months, retroactively, at a cost of $10.3 million. Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove said payments will go out very soon.

— Associated Press

Missing girl, 10, found unharmed, police say

St. Paul police said Wednesday that a girl missing since last week has been found safe.

Ariyah Lewis had last been seen on Friday night when she walked away from a residence in Dayton’s Bluff in the area of East Seventh Street and Johnson Parkway, according to a bulletin distributed Tuesday by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Police initially said she’s 10, but confirmed Wednesday she’s 11.

St. Paul officers found Ariyah, according to a post from the police department, who thanked people who shared their social media post about her when she was missing and offered assistance.

Police began looking for the girl Friday and sought the public’s assistance on Tuesday.

After taking a report of Ariyah being missing, police listed her as a missing person in a national law enforcement database, in the event other law enforcement found her, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a police spokesman. Officers also looked for Ariyah in different parts of St. Paul.

The case was assigned to an investigator Monday. He reached a point where he felt he needed the public’s assistance and the department asked for it Tuesday, Ernster said. Police listed Ariyah as an endangered missing person in a bulletin distributed to the public Tuesday.

— Mara H. Gottfried

Charter school closes over student threat

A charter school in St. Paul closed Wednesday in response to threats directed toward some students, according to a message from Nova Classical Academy to parents.

“Nova Classical is working collaboratively with the St. Paul Police Department related to these concerns; however, at this time, we are unable to ensure the level of safety (Wednesday) to the level that we deem appropriate for our school,” the letter to families said. “Nova Classical takes all threats to our community seriously and will continue to work to ensure the security of our school.”

St. Paul police received a report Tuesday night about a student who’d been in a fight at Nova Classical and received SnapChat messages after school from someone claiming to be the brother of the student he’d been in a fight with, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a police spokesman.

He threatened to beat up the student and another relative if they returned to school. Police were also told about information that was circulating in a SnapChat group chat — that the same person was threatening to bring a gun to the school, Ernster said.

No one was under arrest as of Wednesday afternoon.

The school said in its message that Wednesday’s closure “will provide additional time to investigate these threats and ensure a safe environment for our students. You are encouraged to share any information you or your child may have about these threats with your child’s principal and the St. Paul Police Department.”

The K-12 school in the West Seventh neighborhood has around 1,000 students.

— Staff reports

City won’t restrict parking — for now

Minneapolis on Wednesday instituted a one-sided parking ban, limiting parking to snow emergency routes, parkways and the odd numbered side of non-snow emergency routes. St. Paul did not.

Officials with St. Paul Public Works said in a statement that despite the many snowbanks trimming travel space along city boulevards, they do no plan to declare a one-sided parking ban at this time, though that could change in the future.

“Our streets are snow packed and narrowing,” reads the statement. “However, St. Paul Public Works continues to closely monitor them and work to keep our arterial streets clear in the drive lanes and widen our residential streets to keep them safe and passible.”

Some 52 inches of snowfall has fallen in the Twin Cities this winter, exceeding typical seasonal snowfalls.

The city last week ordered cars to be moved for a special four-day plowing operation, alternating between sides of east-west streets. That was canceled on Jan. 19 in favor of an official city snow emergency declaration — the fifth of the season — which triggers up to 96 hours of emergency plowing operations and parking restrictions.

If more snowfall leaves the city unable to widen residential streets to keep them safe and passible for emergency vehicles, Public Works officials said they could post no parking signs on one side of the street in certain areas, or declare a citywide one-sided parking ban in the future.

To report concerns about street conditions, leave a message at 651-266-9700 and select option 2. To sign up for snow emergency alerts, visit stpaul.gov/snow.

— Frederick Melo

State closing last 4 COVID-19 test sites

The Minnesota Department of Health is closing its last four state-run COVID-19 testing sites this week.

After nearly three years of service the St. Paul Midway testing site will close Friday; the Duluth site will close Saturday; and both the Brooklyn Park and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport sites will close Sunday.

In an MDH statement, Commissioner of Health Dr. Brooke Cunningham states: “We are extremely grateful for all of the partners, staff and contractors who worked to make these state-run testing sites a cornerstone of Minnesota’s nation-leading response to COVID-19.”

Various other avenues of accessing a COVID-19 test will still be available for Minnesotans.

At-home testing can be ordered at mn.gov/covid19/get-tested/at-home. People can check with their insurance companies to see if they are eligible for free at-home tests at local pharmacies. Other testing sites at clinics and pharmacies can be found using the Find Testing Location link on the Minnesota Department of Health COVID page. Additionally, Minnesotans can still access a telehealth test-to-treat program via Cue Health. The telehealth option can help those who test positive find treatment.

Despite the testing sites closing, state health officials still encourage people to monitor their health, test for COVID-19 when necessary, follow quarantine and mask wearing guidelines and staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations.

— Makenzi Johnson

The state Department Transportation’s third annual “Name a Snowplow” contest is in full effect for the winter season.

The contest allows Minnesotans to express their creativity, and wittiness, when naming the fleet of eight district snowplows that are responsible for clearing the roadways across the state.

In December, MnDOT received more than 10,400 submissions for possible snowplow names, with 60 of them being chosen as finalists. Now, voting for the top eight names is open until Feb. 13.

In the 2021-22 winter season, the contest had about 23,000 submissions and more than 122,000 voters. The winning name was “Plowy McPlowFace” which won with 65,292 votes for the Metro District. Second place was “Ope, Just Gonna Plow Right Past Ya” with 29,457 votes for District 4.

Voters can go to mndot.gov/nameasnowplow to vote once for their top eight names out of the 60 finalists.

The 60 finalist names are chosen based on uniqueness, frequency of submissions, Minnesota-specific themes, easily identifiable and understandable to the majority of the audience. Some of this season’s finalists include, Aaron Brrr, Sir, Blader Tot Hotdish, Han Snowlo, Icamna (Dakota word for “blizzard”), Mighty Morphin Plower Ranger, SKOL Plow, Yer a Blizzard Harry and 53 more.

Voting closes on Feb. 13. Fans, creatives and snow-enthusiasts alike can follow the MnDOT on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @mndot for updates, as well as weather and safety alerts and project updates.

— Makenzi Johnson