3 people found dead inside Farmington home, suspect arrested
Oct. 28—Farmington police say officers who responded to a welfare check call at a townhome Wednesday night soon discovered a tragic scene: three adults dead inside, victims of a triple homicide.
A 26-year-old suspect was taken into custody at the scene and booked into the Dakota County Jail early Thursday. Jail records show the suspect, Blake Thomas Maloney, is being held on probable cause of three counts of second-degree murder, but had not been charged as of Thursday evening.
Prosecutors are expected to make a charging decision Friday, according to a spokesperson with the Dakota County attorney's office.
Authorities said the killings were not random and that they are not looking for additional suspects.
"I want to reassure the community that this was not a random incident and there is no ongoing danger to the public," Police Chief Gary Rutherford said in a statement.
According to police, officers were dispatched to the townhome at 5430 West 183rd St. to check the welfare someone who was visiting the home. While officers were investigating the call, they found the three bodies.
Authorities have not given a possible motive for the killings, or the way in which they were carried out. The victims' identities were being withheld by authorities Thursday.
Investigators were still at the townhome Thursday morning, but by noon they had taken down the crime scene tape and left.
In front of the townhouse, a fan could be seen moving back and forth in a second-floor room. A light was on in another room. Two cars were in the driveway.
Kevin Werner's townhome shares a wall with the townhome where the bodies were discovered. He said a man who appeared to be in his 50s lived at the townhome and that a woman may have lived there with him. He said he didn't know either of them personally or speak with them, besides an occasional greeting when they crossed paths.
"There was like a constant cycling of cars through when they first moved in about five years ago, so it was hard to know who lived there and who was just visiting," Werner, 35, said.
He said he was home most of Wednesday night watching a movie, but did not hear or see anything suspicious or alarming.
Police squad car lights caught his attention, so he peered out a window and saw an investigation unfolding. Later on, investigators were at his door asking him questions. They didn't tell him what had happened next door, and he learned of the killings when a reporter told him.
"It's shocking," he said. "I'm still trying to digest what happened. Three? I mean, one is bad enough."
Patricia Buzo, who lives two doors down, said a man and woman lived at the townhome, but she never spoke with them. She said she saw the first police car show up Wednesday, "then they just kept coming and coming. And within that first hour they put up all the crime scene tape."
She said she was still in shock.
"I feel really bad this happened," Buzo, 43, said. "I didn't know them. It's so close, and nobody deserves that."
Farmington police are getting assistance in the investigation from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, along with the Hennepin County medical examiner's office.
