- A former police officer and small-town mayor has been charged with murder
- Jay Ostrem faces three counts of first-degree murder
- It happened after his wife reported that a neighbor had sexually assaulted her.
A former law enforcement officer who served as mayor of a small South Dakota town has been charged with the murder of three people.
Jay Ostrem, 64, was jailed on $1 million cash-only bail on three counts of first-degree murder, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said.
A probable cause affidavit identified the victims as two brothers Paul Frankus, 26, and his brother Zach, 21, and Timothy Richmond, 35.
Ostrem worked in law enforcement for more than two decades in Wyoming and South Dakota.
A former law enforcement officer and Mayor of Centerville, Jay Ostrem, 64, was jailed on $1 million cash bail on three counts of first-degree murder.
He served as mayor of Centerville, a small city of fewer than 1,000 people about 40 miles south of Sioux Falls, about a decade and a half ago, but exact dates were not immediately available.
The probable cause document said a man in Centerville, who identified himself as Zach Frankus, called police at 9:44 p.m. Monday night to report that his brother had been shot by “some guy from the other side of the street” and that the shooter had returned home. .
Frankus was still on the phone with an operator when he said he, too, had been shot. He was described as “frantic.” Frankus then stopped talking, the documents state.
Authorities rushed to the scene, where a Game Fish and Parks officer saw Ostrem leaving the home identified as the scene of the shooting.
The home in Centerville, South Dakota, where a triple homicide took place Monday night.
The former mayor of Centerville has been charged in the triple murder case
Authorities rushed to the scene, where a Game Fish and Parks officer saw Ostrem leaving the home identified as the scene of the shooting, pictured above.
Officers visited the home where the call originated, upstairs, and found the three victims.
Ostrem initially ignored orders to stop before lying on the ground. He was arrested a short time later.
An AR-style rifle was on the ground near him and he had a pistol in his pocket.
Police noticed that Ostrem was bleeding from his left hand and smelled of alcohol.
Officers then went to the home where the call originated and found the three victims.
Ostrem’s wife, who is British, told police that a neighbor, Paul Frankus, had sexually assaulted her on Thursday and told Ostrem about the assault on Monday night.
Jay Ostrem is pictured in 2009 while working as a Turner County sheriff’s investigator.
The couple had been drinking together when he forcibly kissed her, exposed his genitals and pressed himself against her, the report reports. Leader of Argos.
He said Ostrem “got up and stormed out of the house,” according to the document.
She explained to the agents that her husband did not tell her where he was going and that he did not come out armed, although weapons were kept in the house and he probably had some in his car.
Ostrem was booked into the Minnehaha County Jail Tuesday morning in connection with the Centerville shootings.
Centerville, South Dakota, home where triple murder took place Monday night appears cordoned off
The home of the former mayor and law enforcement officer.
“Jay Ostrem has been arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder, and authorities have secured the scene,” Attorney General Jackley stated in a press release.
“There are no further threats to the public.”
Ostrem’s initial appearance is scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday.