Police: One dead, pregnant woman and four children found safe

Authorities are investigating the connection between a shooting death and an apparent abduction.

The Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office says Chad Aanerud was taken into custody at 7:15 a.m. following a traffic stop in Morrison County. A pregnant woman and her four children were found inside his vehicle, unharmed.

The incident started around 1:50 a.m. when Sheriff’s deputies responded to a shooting on Loerch Rd. in Maple Township east of Brainerd. They found a man dead from an apparent gunshot wound. He’s been Identified as Lyle Maske (62) of Brainerd.

Aanerud was identified as a suspect. The Sheriff’s Office believes the shooting death and the apparent abduction are related incidents.

The original was article related to the amber alert can be found below.

——–

The Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office is requesting assistance locating a pregnant woman and her four children who were abducted at gunpoint around 1:50 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 1 from a residence northeast of Brainerd.
The abducted woman is Nikkole Dobson, age 33. She is 5 feet, 7 inches tall, 198 pounds, with green eyes and reddish-brown hair. Her four children are Brandon, 14, Haley, 11, Gracie, 7, and Chloe, 3.

Dobson and her children were taken by her boyfriend, Chad Aanerud, who is 35, 6 feet, 2 inches tall, 185 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. Aanerud is driving a white, 2017, Chrysler Pacifica minivan with Minnesota license place AEC 351.

Aanerud arrived at a residence on the 15000 block of Loerch Road where Dobson and her children were staying around 1:50 a.m. He fired a rifle round into the ceiling of the residence and forced Dobson and her children to leave with him.

DO NOT APPROACH and call 911 with any information.