A man is in custody for the killing of his 68-year-old mother in her Hugo home after a manhunt for him overnight, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.

Charlene Wunderlich applied for an order for protection against her 45-year-old son in 2020. They resided at the same address in the 15900 block of North Ingersoll Avenue, where she was found Monday night. She wrote at the time that he said “he wishes I would die,” according to the court document.

On Monday, someone called 911, but nobody was talking to telecommunicators. They could hear a woman moaning and a male voice shouting in the background. Deputies and emergency medical personnel responded about 5:55 p.m. and heard a struggle inside the home.

They found Wunderlich’s 45-year-old son leaning over her. She was badly bruised and groaning in pain, the sheriff’s office said.

When deputies tried to subdue Wunderlich’s son with a Taser, he broke free and ran away from the home.

“Despite lifesaving efforts, Charlene Wunderlich was pronounced dead at the hospital,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Law enforcement agencies from across the metro area helped with the search for the suspect, which continued overnight and into Tuesday morning. Just before 11 a.m., a person in the 9800 block of 152nd Street North in Hugo noticed a person matching the description of the suspect in their yard and called 911.

Deputies immediately responded and arrested the suspect without incident, the sheriff’s office said. He is in custody in the Washington County Jail.

Judge denied protective order

Wunderlich owned the Ingersoll Avenue property in Hugo, according to Washington County property-tax records.

She and her late husband, William M. “Skip” Wunderlich, ran a dog-kennel business, Bill Wunderlich’s North Oaks Kennels, out of the 35-acre property; the business had previously belonged to Skip Wunderlich’s father. No one answered the phone at the business on Tuesday.

Wunderlich wrote in her Nov. 4, 2020, petition for an order for protection against her son that he screamed and spit at her at least three times a week unless she hid or left, and that he threw things at her. He called her “terrible names,” and “breaks everything in the house,” she wrote.

She checked a box saying she believed she was in immediate danger “because it’s happening for three years now and it’s just escalating,” she wrote. She requested that her son be ordered to attend a domestic abuse program, an alcohol/chemical dependency evaluation and mental health evaluation.

On Nov. 12, 2020, based on Wunderlich’s request, a judge dismissed the case.

Minnesota court records show Wunderlich’s 45-year-old son’s criminal history goes back for years. He has open cases, in which he’s charged with domestic assault against his fiancée and violating a domestic assault no contact order, both in April 2023.

He was convicted of three separate instances of violating a domestic abuse no-contact order in 2021, in two incidents of assaulting three correctional officers at the Washington County jail in 2021, of third-degree assault in 2013, of possession of a firearm by an ineligible person in 2003 and terroristic threats in 2002.

Mary Divine contributed to this report.