Five Found Dead in Minn. Home

L I N O  L A K E S, Minn., Oct. 20, 2000 -- Five people were found slain at a househere today, and authorities were searching for the 28-year-oldbrother of one of the victims.

Police said the victims were a man, a woman and three children.They would not confirm ages or identities. Neighbors and a socialworker said the children were a 12-year-old boy, a 9-year-old girlwith spina bifida and a 1-year-old boy with a developmentaldisability.

Police identified the suspect as Lawrence Scott Dame, 28, aformer prison inmate who had recently been released from the AnokaCounty jail, where he was being held for allegedly stealing one ofthe family’s cars.

Police Chief Dave Pecchia refused to confirm media reports thatthe fugitive was related to one of the victims, but an Anoka Countysocial worker who had worked with the family confirmed that thewoman killed was Dame’s sister.

“As soon as I heard—family of five, Chippewa Trail—I knewher brother’s name was going on the (TV) screen,” said the woman,who asked that her name be withheld while Dame was free. “I wasn’tsurprised.”

Search is OnPecchia said the victims were a family, but he didn’t know therelationship between them. Authorities would not say how thevictims died.

Dame was described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, about 150 poundswith short hair. Dame should be considered armed and dangerous, theAnoka County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. He may have beendriving a car that belonged to the victims, a gold 1999 Saturnstation wagon with Minnesota license DDY 957. Anyone who sees sucha car was asked to contact the sheriff’s office at (763) 427-1212.

Police said they had some leads, but Dame remained at largetonight.

“We’re getting several calls that we’re following up on now,”Pecchia said tonight.

Recent DisturbancesPolice had been called to the house twice recently fordisturbances involving Dame, once for theft and once for a“domestic-related” situation, Pecchia said.

Dame was sent to prison in February 1996 for first-degreeassault with a knife in Morrison County, according to the stateDepartment of Corrections’ Web site. The site listed an expectedrelease date of February of this year, but also had Dame classifiedas a fugitive.

Police were called to the house about 1 p.m. after the mandidn’t show up for work and a neighbor noticed the house’s garagedoor open.

They stretched yellow tape to cordon off the house, a graytwo-story in a cul de sac in this suburb about 17 miles northeastof Minneapolis. The bodies were still in the house late Thursdayafternoon. Pecchia said officers requested a search warrant beforere-entering the house because of the prospect that Dame mightassert a claim to residency in the house.

One of Minnesota’s Worst SlaysThe homicides would rank among Minnesota’s worst. Recentmultiple-victim homicides include the 1998 killings of six childrenin St. Paul by their mother, Khoua Her, and a 1994 gang firebombingthat killed five children of the Coppage family in St. Paul.

In 1988, 16-year-old David Brom of suburban Rochester used an axto kill his parents, 14-year-old brother and 9-year-old sister.

In 1999, five family members, including four children, died in afire that authorities said Primitivo Juan Rivas set at his housenear Lonsdale before killing himself.