Authorities said four Minnesota people were found dead in an abandoned SUV hidden in a cornfield in western Wisconsin on Sunday.
NBC News, citing Dunn County Sheriff's Office, said two women and two men were found shot dead in a black SUV with Minnesota plates that had been driven into a cornfield in Sheridan Township.
According to the Sheriff's Office, preliminary autopsies performed by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office on Monday revealed that all of the victims died of gunshot wounds.
Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, of Stillwater, Minnesota; Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26, of St. Paul, Minnesota; Loyace Foreman III, 35, of St. Paul; and Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, of St. Paul, were the victims, according to authorities.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Pettus was Sturm's half-brother, Foreman was her boyfriend, and Flug-Presley was her close friend.
A farmer discovered the SUV and phoned 911 shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday, according to Belleville News. People inside a vehicle were not moving, the farmer said.
"Why would this happen... It just doesn't make sense," Flug-Presley's father, Damone Presley Sr., said.
The four victims were also in a pub in St. Paul on Saturday night, according to Presley Sr., and got into the vehicle after they departed.
The victims are believed to have died within 24 hours of being discovered, according to authorities.
According to Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd, the reason is still unknown, and the victims were taken to the crime scene at random.
Other than "perhaps randomly traveling out of the Twin Cities," Bygd said they couldn't establish any link between the victims and the cornfield in Sheridan Township.
Sheridan Township is approximately 70 kilometers from St. Paul. The killings are not believed to be linked to organized crime, according to authorities. They claimed there was no evidence the victims were drug dealers or that the murders were motivated by drugs.
The event is being investigated as a probable homicide, according to the sheriff's office. Authorities had speculated that the car was accompanied by a second dark-colored SUV.
One or more suspects, according to Bygd, are likely to have driven the victims from the Twin Cities and wound up in Sheridan at random.
"Everybody's a suspect at this point... We're looking at everybody and every possibility," the sheriff said in a People report.
The suspect or suspects departed the area after dumping the SUV in the cornfield, according to the sheriff's office. Hence, the neighborhood is not in danger at this moment.
Some surrounding neighbors, though, do not share that confidence. Many comments on the sheriff's office Facebook page expressed their fear and want for additional information about the incident.
This type of crime does not occur in Sheridan, according to a netizen.
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