FARGO — A dozen homicides, a worsening homeless problem and a development company’s collapse were among the most significant news stories in the Fargo-Moorhead metro in 2024.
The year also saw a dispute over materials used to construct the $3.2 billion
bids for the White House by the governors of North Dakota and Minnesota and closings of multiple legacy businesses.
Here is a recap of those and other important happenings of the past year, in no specific order.
Homicides and police shooting
Twelve homicides were reported in Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo in 2024.
Three of them occurred in a single week, including a shooting outside a West Fargo church.
On Aug. 17, Austin Strom, 25, was trying to break into Prairie Heights Church where he was a member when fellow church member Kent Hodges, 66, confronted him.
Police said Strom began assaulting Hodges and another man, Don Barron, 53, intervened. Barron told an unarmed Strom, who
approached with hands in the air,
to back up. Barron shot Strom once in the chest with a handgun.
West Fargo Police Department
Assistant prosecutor Ryan Younggren
saying dashcam video from Barron’s vehicle showed Barron acted in defense of himself and Hodges.
Another West Fargo death occurred July 15, when Alexander Anderson, 38,
Robyn Lee, 31, was arrested and held in jail but released without charges being filed. While Anderson’s death has not been ruled a homicide, police are still investigating.
Moorhead’s first homicide of the year was in mid-March,
when 3-year-old Eastyn Deronjic died under the care of Rosa Garza, 24, and Shiann Erickson, 22.
Contributed
The boy’s biological mother told police she left him in Garza’s care due to personal issues.
A medical examiner said while the boy’s face and body were bruised, a bowel perforation from a single blow caused his death. Garza and Erickson face second-degree murder charges.
In late July, Franky Torres was shot outside a Moorhead apartment after confronting another man about sexually assaulting his friend.
While Torres, 37, beat the other man,
Jamal Ahmed, 35, allegedly shot Torres in the head. Ahmed faces a second-degree murder charge.
In early August, Willard DeGroat, 47, died after girlfriend Connie Jo Frank, 48, allegedly stabbed him at a Moorhead home.
on a second-degree murder charge. Her attorney indicates Frank will claim self-defense.
On Aug. 19, the case of
missing 14-year-old Jaelyn Walker became a case of murder.
Isaac Arndt, 18, of Fargo, initially reported to Moorhead police an assault by an unknown white man who followed him and Walker in Gooseberry Park.
Contributed / Moorhead Police Department
Police found Walker’s body along the Red River, after which time
The first homicide of 2024 in Fargo was in late March, outside Southtown Pourhouse.
Ethan Larson, 22, of Newfolden, Minnesota, and Michael Diedrich, now 29 and from a St. Paul suburb, did not know each other when they were kicked out of the bar for fighting, police said.
Diedrich is accused of stabbing Larson in the parking lot.
His trial is expected in July 2025.
In June, Jody Campbell, 59, of Fargo, died in her apartment while being choked during an argument by one-time boyfriend, Randall Duffy, 61, police said.
Contributed / Caitlin Wachsmuth
Campbell was a longtime, beloved server
at Blackbird Woodfire in downtown Fargo. Duffy, charged with murder and domestic violence,
is set for trial in the summer of 2025.
In late June, Zion Brooks, 24, was shot at
The Arbors public housing complex
where he lived.
Amire Logan, 20, first faced a gun charge and was
on multiple gun-related charges. Prosecutors have not said whether Logan will be charged with murder in Brooks’ death.
In August, Sampson Bleh, 35, was shot to death at a Fargo apartment complex.
Police named his
one-time best friend, Leo Dartoe, 34, as a suspect.
Dartoe was later arrested in Atlanta and brought to Fargo, where he is jailed on murder, gun and drug charges.
In September,
Jalab Moses, 25, was shot dead at a north Fargo apartment.
Police said Tyreik Taylor Roberts, 24, shot Moses during an argument. In addition to murder, prosecutors added felony manslaughter and aggravated assault charges.
A police shooting death on Nov. 13 in Fargo is still under review.
Fargo police shot a man who walked out of his home with a gun during a police interaction.
Peter Greco, 65, had called 911 and expressed suicidal thoughts earlier in the day, police said.
The responding officers were
eight-year veteran Sgt. Lucas Mock and Princeten Harris, on the job for 10 months.
Both are on paid administrative leave pending a use-of-force investigation.
Attorney General Drew Wrigley is expected to announce results of that investigation in the new year.
On Dec. 4,
32-year-old Rahssan Wilson, of Fargo,
was shot at a south Fargo apartment and later died.
Steven Burrell, 30, of Fargo, was arrested in Iowa and his
is pending.
A growing
remained in news headlines for the second half of 2024. On any given night, more than 1,000 people are homeless in the metro area, the F-M Coalition to End Homelessness said.
In September, Fargo city commissioners passed an
ordinance making it illegal to camp on public property,
but also allowed temporary camping due to a lack of housing and shelter space.
In late October, commissioners voted 3-2 to again run the city’s winter warming program to offer overnight shelter for homeless people.
Mayor Tim Mahoney and Commissioners John Strand and Denise Kolpack voted in favor, while Commissioners Michelle Turnberg and Dave Piepkorn voted no.
“We have to start cleaning up this city,”
“It’s turning into a crap hole.”
Tasha Carvell / The Forum
Two days later,
the city used bulldozers to clear one of the largest remaining homeless camps,
loading tarps and mattress pads into garbage trucks.
In November, with shelters over capacity,
the winter warming center opened inside Fargo Cass Public Health.
On Dec. 9,
and to open the Fargo Civic Center as an emergency winter shelter.
Anna Paige / The Forum
The proposal failed 3-2, but Mahoney and Kolpack promised an alternative.
At the Dec. 23 commission meeting, Mahoney said the city will step back to play more of a support role,
Commissioners also voted to officially ban homeless encampments and move those services out of downtown Fargo.
One of the most active property development and event management companies in the area shocked the community in May when it abruptly shut its doors.
Epic Companies developed more than 25 large properties across North Dakota,
including The Lights complex and portions of the Yards at Sheyenne development in West Fargo.
Unfinished projects included The Wave by Epic, a water park planned along with a hotel in southwest Fargo.
The company was wrapping up the Gateway development
in downtown Fargo when the collapse began.
There was
no formal announcement from the company or from Todd Berning,
president and founder.
Since then, other companies have taken over management of Epic’s properties.
On July 8,
Epic began Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings
for five companies which make up the entity.
Helmut Schmidt / The Forum
“These five related cases are certainly the largest Chapter 11 cases to be filed in North Dakota in a great many years,” said lawyer Mac VerStandig at the time.
Berning’s whereabouts are still unknown. Court servers have been
unable to find and serve him with papers.
A West Fargo man
to life in prison without the possibility of parole
after being found guilty of striking his wife in the head and leaving her in a bathtub to die.
Spencer Moen, 32, was charged with Class AA felony murder in
the 2023 death of 30-year-old Sonja Moen.
An autopsy showed she died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.
A roughly 10-second video found on Spencer Moen’s cellphone showed Sonja Moen lying in a bathtub, making rattling sounds as she tried to breathe.
Prosecutors said Spencer Moen spent the day of the murder golfing and drinking and was refused alcohol at a Mapleton brewery because he was drunk and “becoming a nuisance.”
Anna Paige / The Forum
His wife gave him a ride home, where police said he later killed her.
The next morning, Spencer Moen took the couple’s children to day care and returned home, calling Sonja Moen’s mother before he called 911.
Diversion dispute over rebar
A contract dispute over materials being used in the $3.2 billion F-M Area Diversion
led to the sudden resignation of its leader and cast a cloud over the project in 2024.
Once completed, the diversion will route water around the F-M metro during extreme flooding.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
Executive Director Joel Paulsen stepped down April 9 over a potential lawsuit prompted by a push for parts of the project to be redone using epoxy-coated rebar.
Steel rebar is used to strengthen concrete. When coated with epoxy, it will corrode at a rate 8 to 100 times less than regular rebar, a structural engineering professor at North Dakota State University said.
The Metro Flood Diversion Authority maintains epoxy-coated rebar is required for all structures in the project, while developer Red River Valley Alliance said it’s only needed when steel is subject to corrosive environmental conditions.
Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum
While the contract dispute wears on,
Diversion Authority leaders said in July that the project is on track to be substantially finished and operational in 2027 with completion in 2028.
In December,
before a new person starts in the position.
Cass County Engineer Jason Benson, chosen from a pool of finalists, becomes the next executive director in February 2025.
Former lawmaker pleads guilty in ‘child sex tourism’ case
A former, longtime North Dakota lawmaker
While in office, Sen. Ray Holmberg used
taxpayer funds from the North Dakota School Boards Association’s Global Bridges program
to fly multiple times to the Czech Republic city of Prague, with intent to engage in “child sex tourism.”
The accusations against the Republican from Grand Forks cover periods from 2011 through 2016.
During the plea hearing, shocking details revealed how Holmberg asked someone to find him “a kid” to abuse during his travels, suggesting “no one is ever too young.”
Troy Becker / The Forum
In exchange for the plea, a child sex abuse materials charge was dismissed and
a sentence of just over three years was proposed.
After Holmberg’s indictment in October 2023, he was allowed to stay out of jail on release for “exceptional circumstances” due to medical issues.
However,
Holmberg repeatedly violated those conditions
by accessing the internet, drinking alcohol and frequenting an adult novelty store, a U.S. Pretrial Services report said.
In early November,
Holmberg surrendered to the U.S. Marshals Service and was booked in the Sherburne County Jail
in Elk River, Minnesota, where he awaits sentencing.
Contributed / Sherburne County Jail
Once thought deleted, former AG’s emails released
Thousands of emails to and from former North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem,
once thought deleted and gone forever, were made public beginning in late March.
Spokeswoman Liz Brocker asked a state information technology employee
to delete her boss’s email account on Jan. 29, 2022, one day after Stenehjem died from cardiac arrest.
Brocker said deputy attorney general Troy Seibel instructed her to do so.
Contributed
The Forum requested Stenehjem’s emails in June 2022 after his successor, Drew Wrigley, revealed Stenehjem
racked up $1.8 million in cost overruns
while renovating a building in Bismarck to house the AG office, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and other offices.
Wrigley said Stenehjem learned of the unanticipated costs in early 2021 but did not tell his budget staff.
Once Wrigley revealed Stenehjem’s emails still existed on a BCI computer,
The Forum renewed its request for them.
The emails did not mention building cost overruns and only sparsely referenced Holmberg, Stenehjem’s longtime friend.
On Sept. 3, Wrigley announced that Stenehjem’s deputy,
48-year-old Troy Seibel, had died
and that his death had nothing to do with the email release.
An independent investigation by the Mountrail County state’s attorney found there was
Governors aim for White House
The governors of North Dakota and Minnesota both had sights on the White House in 2024.
After a failed run for the Republican presidential nomination, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum
unsuccessfully to become then-Republican nominee Donald Trump’s running mate.
Throughout 2024, Burgum made his presence known at
and rallies, and
Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
Brendan McDermid / Reuters
Ultimately, Trump made Sen. JD Vance of Ohio his choice for vice president and won the November election.
Ten days later, Trump
Burgum will oversee agencies including the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service.
The life trajectory for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, changed abruptly in late July, after President Joe Biden ended his bid for a second term and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the office.
Just over two weeks after that announcement,
Erica Dischino / Reuters
Walz, a former teacher, football coach and Army National Guard member, entered the race with a focus on political positivity but pivoted to harsher critiques before the election, questioning Trump’s mental faculties and referencing Trump’s felony convictions during appearances.
After the election loss,
Walz returned to Minnesota to fill out the remaining two years of his second term as governor.
On Oct. 4,
devastating fires broke out in western North Dakota,
killing two people, injuring eight others and causing widespread damage to utilities and other public infrastructure as well as homes, land and livestock.
Johannes Nicolaas Van Eden, 26, of South Africa,
who worked as a ranch hand just east of Ray, died in the fires.
Edgar Coppersmith, 47, of Tioga, died
after being flown to a Denver hospital with critical injuries sustained in the fires.
Contributed / Arnegard Rural Fire Department
Strong winds, with gusts reaching 75 mph, and dry conditions exacerbated the fires, likely considered the worst in state history.
The largest fires near Tioga and Ray burned almost 90,000 acres and killed more than 270 cattle.
Electrical utilities in McKenzie and Williams counties reported $3.7 million in damage, with more than 600 power poles needing to be replaced.
Damage was expected to exceed $8 million,
prompting Burgum to request a disaster declaration that would unlock funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help pay for destroyed property. Biden
signed off on the major disaster declaration
Dec. 26.
New coach takes helm of Bison football
Tim Polasek was chosen as the new head coach of North Dakota State Bison football after Matt Entz left to become an assistant head coach at Southern California.
Then the offensive coordinator at Wyoming, Polasek had two prior stints with NDSU from 2006-2012 and 2014-2017.
David Samson/The Forum
In February,
NDSU signed Polasek to a contract similar to his predecessors:
a five-year deal starting with a base annual salary of $330,000, plus bonuses and incentives.
If all are met, including a Division I FCS national championship, his contract will be worth at least $449,500, The Forum reported previously.
David Samson/The Forum
After beating South Dakota State in the semifinals,
the Bison return to Frisco, Texas to seek a 10th national championship, facing Montana State on Jan. 6, 2025.
Meanwhile,
Entz was named in early December as head coach at Fresno State,
signing a five-year contract worth $7.35 million.
Superintendent under scrutiny
Fargo Public Schools Superintendent Rupak Gandhi came under a public microscope multiple times in 2024.
At an April school board meeting, he said race could be a factor in scrutiny of the district’s remote work policy after The Forum
reported FPS was the only metro school district offering employees out-of-state remote work.
Among those employees are two administrators who work remotely from Texas and travel to Fargo as needed or seasonally. One is white and one is Black.
“I don’t have enough information to say that race is a factor,
but I do have enough information to say … someone can reasonably expect that’s a consideration when we’ve been employing a practice in our district for a very long time,” Gandhi said at the meeting.
Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum
The Forum’s editorial board responded,
saying Gandhi was reckless to suggest scrutiny of the district policy came from “a nefarious place.”
In May, Gandhi drew criticism from educators who said his
teacher appreciation message, written with the help of artificial intelligence, fell flat.
Gandhi is a prolific user of AI tools, using them to draft a
and a superintendent’s column about AI.
Contributed
Concerns went beyond the teacher message, however, to include whether it’s OK for a superintendent to use tools that students are often discouraged from using.
Also in May, it was revealed that a woman fired from Fargo Public Schools over accusations of exchanging nude photos with a boy at school
also worked as the Gandhi family’s nanny.
Ashley Peterson was terminated in October of 2023 due to the investigation
and Gandhi said his family fired her as their nanny immediately after.
In November,
Gandhi announced his resignation from the district effective June 30, 2025.
After seven years as superintendent, Gandhi said he will launch an education-related business focused on strategic planning.
Long-standing businesses close
The F-M metro lost multiple iconic businesses in 2024.
Zandbroz Variety, a fixture in downtown Fargo for 33 years,
announced it would close in June.
David Samson / The Forum
Greg Danz started the business at 420 Broadway with his brother, Jeff, in 1991.
Selling a whimsical collection of books, gifts and antiques, the store is often credited with helping jump-start downtown Fargo’s revitalization.
In late October, Fargo Brewing Company announced it would close after 14 years in business.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
The craft brewery at 610 N. University Drive
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-April.
In a Facebook post, Fargo Brewing thanked its customers for “being a part of our journey.”
Mexican Village, in business for more than 50 years in Fargo,
announced it would close Dec. 30.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
The restaurant closed its downtown Fargo location in 2023
with intent of consolidating and continuing operations at its restaurant at 3155 45th St. S.
But after sustained down periods, owner Steve Bush said it didn’t make sense financially to stay open.
“It has been an honor to be a part of the Fargo-Moorhead community for over 50 years,” a Facebook post said.
