A Minnesota man was arrested Monday in connection with the death of his wife, more than two weeks after the woman’s body was found on the side of the road, officials said.
Angela Marie McClelland, 49, appeared to have been fatally struck by a vehicle, the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office said.
Her body was found shortly after 5 a.m. June 25 after someone saw what they thought was a body near an intersection off a highway in Fort Ripley Township, the sheriff's office said.
On Monday her husband, Tony James McClelland, 47, was booked on charges of second-degree murder and criminal vehicular homicide, the sheriff's office said in a statement.
He is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicide, according to a criminal complaint. His arraignment was scheduled for Wednesday morning, the Crow Wing County Attorney's Office said.
The charges in the criminal complaint allege that the killing was intended but not premeditated, and that Tony McClelland was under the influence of alcohol.
The couple lived together in a home in Fort Ripley, a tiny community of less than 100 people around 50 miles north of St. Cloud, according to the sheriff's office.
It said more information would be released in the coming days.
It was not clear whether McClelland had an attorney who could speak on his behalf Tuesday night. There was no answer at phone numbers listed for McClelland.
Witnesses told police that Tony and Angela McClelland had been at a party the night before her body was found, and they left together around 2 a.m., according to a probable cause statement filed along with the criminal complaint.
Tony McClelland told investigators he dropped his wife off along a road after an argument, it says.
But forensic data showed the Ford Explorer was at the scene where Angela McClelland’s body was found, and that it stopped and then backed up at around 20 mph before speeding off at 100 mph, police wrote in the document. Blood and strands of hair were found beneath the vehicle, it says.
An autopsy found Angela McClelland died of traumatic head injuries, according to the document.
