The wife of a missionary from northwestern Minnesota has been arrested in connection with his slaying in Africa, according to the family’s Detroit Lakes church.

Beau Shroyer was killed Oct. 25 while working in Angola, Lakes Area Vineyard Church said earlier this week.

On Friday, Lead Pastor Troy Easton wrote in an online statement that Jackie Shroyer had been arrested in her husband’s death.

“Today, our grief and sadness has deepened immeasurably,” Easton’s statement said.

Easton said the Shroyers’ five children are “well cared for” and that Lakes Area Vineyard Church will continue to work along SIM USA and SIM Angola, a Christian missionary organization.

“This is unimaginable, and yet it is very real. As a community we must cry out to the Lord for his grace, mercy and comforting presence for the Shroyer children and family,” Easton said in his statement. “We must honor God and love each other by how we communicate about this, and we must continue to stand together, asking God to do in and through all of this what only He can.”

Beau Shroyer joined the Detroit Lakes Police Department in 2013 before becoming a real estate agent in the area. In 2021, he and his family moved to Africa to become missionaries.

The area of southern Africa where the family moved is one that Beau Shroyer previously described as a “remote bush village” with no electricity, sewer or water systems.

Other details about the arrest of Jackie Shroyer weren’t immediately available, and the Lakes Area Vineyard Church said it wouldn’t have anything to add beyond its statement.

— Forum News Service

Slaying, abduction trigger Amber Alert

Law enforcement arrested a 35-year-old Brainerd man early Friday as a suspect in a shooting death and for allegedly abducting five people from a residence northeast of Brainerd.

At about 1:50 a.m., Crow Wing County sheriff’s deputies responded to a shooting on Loerch Road in Maple Grove Township east of Brainerd. Deputies arrived in the area and found a man dead from an apparent gunshot wound. The victim was identified as Lyle Maske, 62, Brainerd.

Investigators identified Chad Aanerud as a suspect in the shooting. Aanerud allegedly took five individuals against their will from a residence in the 15000 block of Loerch Road and left the scene in a white 2017 Chrysler Pacifica. The sheriff’s office reported it believed the shooting death and the apparent abduction were related.

The abduction victims were a 33-year-old woman and four juveniles, ages 14, 11, 7 and 3.

An Amber Alert was sent out about 6:30 a.m. Friday with the suspect and vehicle information.

At about 7:15 am, the vehicle was located and stopped by law enforcement in Morrison County. Aanerud was arrested, and the five abduction victims were located in the vehicle unharmed.

— Forum News Service

Motorist dies in crash during first snowfall

A central Minnesota woman died Thursday after a two-vehicle collision during the season’s first snowstorm.

According to the Minnesota State Patrol, Audrey Patricia Lankey, 77, of Hutchinson, died at the local hospital.

The crash occurred around 10 a.m. Thursday, just as snow and rain were falling in central Minnesota.

Lankey was driving a Ford Ecosport westbound on Minnesota 7 when it collided with an eastbound pickup truck about four miles west of Hutchinson.

The pickup driver wasn’t seriously injured.

— Forum News Service