Bradley Allen Weyaus (Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office).
A man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing another who he believed was dealing fatal drugs.
Bradley Allen Weyaus has confessed to the killing of Rodney Pendegayosh Jr., aged 25, as stated by prosecutors in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota. His sentencing is slated for July 24, with his fate mostly dependent on the terms of his plea deal.
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Under the agreement, Weyaus faces a sentence ranging from 25 years and six months to 30 years and seven months in prison. Meanwhile, his partner in the crime, Alexis Marion Elling, who pleaded guilty in February 2024 to aiding the offender, will have her sentencing delayed until Weyaus’ case is resolved. Elling agreed to testify against Weyaus in return for a deferral of her sentence for five years imprisonment and up to five years of supervised probation.
Authorities have said that the defendants, a couple, believed that Pendegayosh dealt Elling’s brother a fatal mixture of fentanyl and meth.
Their crime was anything but typical.
Mille Lacs County Sheriff Kyle Burton described the situation as strange during a news briefing when charges were brought by the authorities. He mentioned, “This entire scenario is truly unusual. The body was relocated multiple times over a period, potentially up to a week, before its discovery.”
A public works maintenance crew that was cleaning garbage discovered Pendegayosh’s remains stuffed into a tote bag along a snowy highway in March 2023.
“They see what they believe to be a severed human foot,” the sheriff said. They closed the tote and called the police.
An officer on the way to the scene spotted a suspect vehicle, a white Saturn believed to be driven by Weyaus. Weyaus fled, and for a time, eluded capture. The officer eventually found the vehicle empty but stuck in a driveway. The homeowners pointed out the suspect hiding in a camper trailer on the property. The arrest ensued. In a duffel bag on Wayaus’s person, authorities discovered a hacksaw, hammer, and black tape similar to the tape found on the tote.
Other evidence pointed toward the couple. There was a spent shotgun shell in the suspect vehicle, although apparently no gun. Investigators found a bloody carpet, gloves, and a hardware store receipt in the dumpster at the apartment where the suspect lived — as well as Pendegayosh’s ID and credit card.
The sheriff said surveillance video shows the suspects carrying the tote bag out of the apartment and loading it into a black Chevrolet Impala a few days before police discovered the body.
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