Arlene Bell allegedly stabbed and strangled her 76-year-old roommate who had Parkinson’s dementia for over a decade at their home in Faribault, Minnesota . She’s charged with second-degree murder. (Faribault Police Department)
Prosecutors in Minnesota on Friday accused a woman of stabbing and strangling her 76-year-old roommate who had Parkinson’s dementia, then bounding his ankles and wrapping his body in blankets and a heated mattress pad.
Arlene Theresa Bell, 32, is charged with second-degree murder, the Rice County Attorney’s Office said in a press release. Police in Faribault, a city about 50 miles south of Minneapolis, found the body of Gary Lehmeyer while conducting a welfare check at his home on Feb. 5. Cops noticed his van was missing and later learned it was already in possession of law enforcement.
Around 11:30 a.m. Feb. 5, an Iowa State Patrol trooper pulled over Lehmeyer’s vehicle west of Des Moines with Bell driving it, authorities said. Troopers said she looked as if she were under the influence of drugs. They found drugs in the van and she told them she was driving to the Mexico border, according to troopers. She also reportedly said she was coming down from a meth high from a couple days earlier. Troopers took her into custody on the drug charges and Rice County prosecutors later added a motor vehicle theft charge.
Bell later told detectives she was home with Lehmeyer when she heard something hit the floor in his bedroom. When she went to see what happened, she claimed she saw “red bullets” at Lehmeyer’s feet.
“Though Bell admitted that she didn’t see any guns, she said she was scared, that Lehmeyer wouldn’t let her leave the room and that the two began a very physical fight, despite Lehmeyer being physically disabled and diagnosed more than a decade ago with Parkinson’s dementia,” the press release said.
Prosecutors said Bell admitted to stabbing Lehmeyer repeatedly and used a knife to “saw at his wrists.” Bell also told investigators that Lehmeyer threw a dehumidifier at her and began choking her with its cord. She said she cut the cord to free herself.
She watched as he began “bleeding profusely” and spit blood at her, prosecutors say. Bell then bound his feet together with the dehumidifier cord and wrapped his body because she was afraid he would “regain consciousness and kill her.” She said she then took a shower to wash off all the blood on her before driving away in Lehmeyer’s van.
An autopsy determined Lehmeyer died of ligature strangulation and multiple sharp force injuries, local Fox affiliate KMSP reported.
Bell previously has been arrested for making terroristic threats, burglary and harassment. She remains at the Dallas County Jail awaiting extradition back to Minnesota on the murder charges. A grand jury could indict her for first-degree murder at a later time.
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