Vance Boelter, the man accused of killing a member of the Minnesota legislature and her husband, and severely injuring another Democratic legislator and his wife, was a prepper who told his family to flee to neighboring Wisconsin if anything bad happened, according to a new report from the Star Tribune. The alleged killer even claimed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz instructed him to kill Sen. Amy Klobuchar in a letter the newspaper described as “rambling and conspiratorial.”
The letter is described as 1.5 pages long and “incoherent,” claiming that Boelter was secretly trained by the U.S. military “off the books.” The letter was found in Boelter’s car, according to the Star Tribune, and says that Walz wanted Klobuchar killed so that the governor could run for senate, something he’s expressed no desire to do. There’s no evidence anything in the letter is true, but that hasn’t stopped conspiracy theorists on X from insisting it’s evidence that Boelter is actually left wing.
The 57-year-old Boelter allegedly killed state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband in the early morning hours of June 14 disguised as a police officer. Boelter wore a mask and repeatedly shouted “This is the police. Open the door,” after arriving at the home around 2:00 a.m. local time. After killing Hortman and her husband he moved on to the home of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. Police first thought Boelter was a fellow officer when they arrived but figured it out and exchanged gunfire, according to court documents.
Boelter’s apparent desire to be prepared for extremist scenarios shows up repeatedly in the unsealed court documents. A police search of Boelter’s car found “semi-automatic, assault-style rifles, as well as a large quantity of ammunition organized into loaded magazines,” along with wound treatment supplies and eye masks for sleeping.
Boelter, who harbored far-right extremist views on everything from abortion to LGBT rights, allegedly told his family about a “bailout plan” if anything happened, according to the Star Tribune, which his wife may have followed. Police used cellphone tracking to determine the location of Boelter’s wife later in the morning of June 14 and found her at 6:18 a.m., according to court documents. She was pulled over and consented to a search of her phone, which revealed that she and others in the family received a text that read, “Dad went to war last night… I don’t wanna say more because I don’t wanna implicate anybody.”
Boelter apparently told his family to leave their house because he was afraid police would come looking. Another text to his family read: “Words are not gonna explain how sorry I am for this situation… there’s gonna be some people coming to the house armed and trigger-happy and I don’t want you guys around.”
Police found two handguns in the car of Boelter’s wife along with about $10,000 in cash, according to the documents. Her passport and passports for her children were also in the car.
In one of the most interesting details from the case, Boelter allegedly used data broker websites that compile information on private citizens to figure out where to find his targets. The list of targets included dozens of people. According to the court filing, the websites Boelter listed in a notebook included:
- Truepeoplesearch
- Spokeo
- Pipl
- Peoplefinders
- Beenverified
- Whitepages
- Truthfinder
- Intelius
- Ownerly
- USsearch
- Peoplelooker
Boelter faces faces six federal charges for the shooting and local prosecutors have said they plan to pursue a first-degree murder charge against the man. There was an outcry on social media after it was revealed Hennepin County prosecutors had only filed second degree murder charges but first degree murder can only be brought in Minnesota after evidence is presented to a grand jury.