Sjodin Boyfriend Was Braced for Worst News
April 19 -- The boyfriend of Dru Sjodin, the college student who went missing in November and whose body was found over the weekend, says he always held out hope that his girlfriend would be found alive — but he also braced himself for the worst news.
"Hope never left about finding Dru," Chris Lang told Good Morning America. "We wanted to find her alive as well, but unfortunately, we got the worst news. We had been out there for 5½ months and knowing what we may possibly find and unfortunately, that's what we wound up [finding]."
Searchers found the University of North Dakota student's body Saturday in a ravine near Crookston, Minn. — the hometown of Alfonso Rodriguez, who is accused of her kidnapping. Volunteers had previously searched the area several times but the snow-covered landscape had hidden Sjodin's remains. The beginning of the spring thaw enabled searchers to finally find Sjodin.
Sjodin, 22, had been missing since Nov. 22. She was last seen walking in the parking lot of the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks. She had left the Victoria's Secret store where she worked and was talking to Lang on her cell phone. Lang told police he heard Sjodin say "Oh my God" — and then the line went dead.
Something Good Out of Tragedy
Lang and Sjodin's family leaned on each other for support as weeks and months passed with investigators and searchers unable to find Dru. Lang was with Sjodin's family, helping them hand out food to volunteer searchers, when they learned Dru's body had been found. Though he was grief-stricken, Lang said he was happy to have been with loved ones at that time.
"It was actually probably the best way I could find out the news," he said. "I was there with her family and mine, and bittersweetly, it was — I couldn't have written a better way to find out the horrible news."
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