Tony McClelland, on the left, and Angela McClelland, on the right. (Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office; Obituary)
A woman was found dead on the side of a road late last month in Minnesota – just a few miles due east of the Mississippi River. A terse press release issued by the local sheriff’s office later identified her as the victim of a hit-and-run. Now, the deceased woman’s husband has been arrested on suspicion of murder and vehicular homicide.
Angela Marie McClelland, 49, “is believed to have died as a result of being struck by a vehicle,” the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office said on June 26, the day after her body was discovered at the intersection of Legend Lane and Killian Road in Fort Ripley Township, a small community of some 600-residents that is home to a tiny city of the same name with less than 100 residents – which itself is considered part of the broader, though still quite small, Brainerd micropolitan area.
“Angie was a contradiction in terms of that sometimes she was shy and quiet and other times she was loud, eccentric, and often the center of those that gathered around her,” the victim’s obituary reads. “People naturally flocked to Angie.”
That eulogy continued to remember her fondly:
Angie also loved to talk, sometimes spending hours upon hours on the phone with sister, Sherri, her father, Dean, or one of the many other family members or friends. Her ability to keep a conversation going is one of the many reasons people were so deeply connected to her. Her warm heart, uncanny lucky streaks, her immense and unconditional love for her Dachshunds, and her contagious laugh were some of the many others.
Angela McClelland hailed from the smaller city; she is believed to have been struck and killed sometime during the early morning hours of the Sunday in question. The woman’s body was originally spotted by a passerby who “thought there may be a body lying in the roadway off State highway 371” at 5:41 a.m. on June 25, the CWCSO said in their initial press release on the death investigation. In a follow-up press release, law enforcement asked for help from witnesses or “anyone who may have seen anything suspicious in the area.”
After just over two weeks with the case, deputies arrested the victim’s husband and booked him in the Crow Wing County Jail.
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Tony James McClelland, 47, was arrested at around 8:30 p.m. on Monday and is set to be charged on counts of murder in the second degree and criminal vehicular homicide, the sheriff’s office said, on the strength of alleged “interviews” and “pieces of evidence.”
“The death occurred about two weeks ago and investigators have been working on the case putting the pieces together to the fatal events leading up to the death of the victim,” a Monday press release says. “Both the husband and victim lived together in their Fort Ripley home.”
Local sheriff’s deputies and investigators worked alongside the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to identify the alleged perpetrator, the CWCSO said.
Details of the investigation, however, are currently scarce. Law enforcement has not shared a potential motive for the alleged killer.
Before Angela McClelland née Zumbrunnen, married her husband, she “grew up in the natural paradise of Embarrass, MN,” her obituary notes, where she developed a love for hunting, fishing, being outdoors, and constructing bonfires – a skill at which she excelled.
“Angie married Tony McClelland on October 20, 2011, at The Little White Chapel of Las Vegas, NV,” the obituary continues. “From that day on, just as they were in courtship, in marriage they were inseparable. Tony and Angie loved to travel, spend time out West, and to take leisurely cruises – either by road or by water.”
“Together they spent time relaxing around campfires in the summer, hunted the Northland in the fall, enjoyed ice fishing in the winters, and maintained a beautiful home as the flowers grew in the early Spring,” the obituary read. “Angie especially loved to spend quality time with Tony taking trips around that lake on their pontoon in the evenings. The fourth of July was their favorite holiday to gather with friends and family, and on this fourth, not one firework will shine as bright in her absence.”
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