Authorities in Minnesota say Davenport investigators previously visited the community near where Carrie Olson’s body was found.
Carrie Olson was last seen at a Rock Island gas station December 28, 2013. The day after a surveillance camera captured video of her at the gas pumps, that same camera captured a man again putting gas in her car but Carrie was not in that video. When she didn’t show up for work December 30, her family reported Carrie missing.
A land owner discovered Carrie’s body Saturday, April 5, 2014, in rural Dakota County, Minnesota about six miles outside of the town of Hastings. Her body was only about 15 yards away from the road, but the combination heavy snow in the area and the body being below the tree line could have hidden it from view.
When the body was found, Dakota County deputies put information about the discovery out to the public and shared it in a national crime information database of missing and unidentified people.
That’s when they started to get indications that the body found may have been Carrie Olson, according to Dakota County Chief Deputy Sheriff Tim Leslie.
Leslie said the pieces of the investigation, from the various law enforcement agencies involved, still needed to be put together. They met in Rochester, Minnesota on Wednesday, April 9 to begin that process.
“We provide what we’ve found from the site where the body was located,” Leslie said. “The Hennepin Medical Examiner’s Office has to make sure that Davenport and Rock Island have that information, and any kind of theories on how long she was there. Then Davenport and Rock Island provide what they’ve done so far.”
“Apparently, Davenport, Iowa had been up in Hastings, investigating her disappearance, and we didn’t have any idea about that,” Leslie said.
“So, that’s a piece that needs to be tied together. When she first disappeared, that was something between them and the Hastings Police Department that we didn’t even know about until a short time ago. So, we’ll tie all those things together,” Leslie said.
Hastings Police Chief Bryan Schafer confirmed Davenport Police had been there January 8, 2014.
"They were in the process of doing a follow-up, looking for the victim in this case. They checked - I believe they were checking an address or they had an area that they were looking at. But, other than that, they were up here for a day and they left, and we haven't heard anything since until this story broke," Schafer said.
Davenport Police previously said they had questioned a man who had traveled to Minnesota, and later returned from there, in Carrie's car.
The cause of Carrie’s death had not yet been released.
Information from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office indicated they were still waiting for results of several tests, and those results could take a week or more to come back.
Dakota County authorities were investigating the case a “questionable death.”