UPDATE: Suspect in Cloquet double murder captured in wooded area
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The Cloquet Police Department in northern Minnesota arrested a 33-year-old man after a woman and toddler were found dead at a home on the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation.
Authorities were called to the home in Cloquet on Saturday for a welfare check on a woman and her child. Officers checked the home located in 1600 block of Locke Lane in the City of Cloquet on the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation but were unable to contact or see anyone inside.
Officers later obtained a search warrant and found the bodies of a 27-year-old woman and an 18-month-old boy inside the house.
Cloquet police say with the assistance of a Carlton County Sheriff K-9 and a Minnesota State Patrol Helicopter, they were able to track down their suspect, Sheldon James Thompson, 33. He was arrested in a wooded area on the Reservation several miles from the crime scene.
Police say no weapons were found at the time of the arrest. Thompson was treated for weather-related issues at a local hospital and is currently being held at the Carlton County jail awaiting formal charges.
Thompson has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 2004. According to court records, previous charges against him include a dismissed attempted murder case, multiple domestic assault convictions and a conviction for violating a domestic abuse no-contact order.
Names of the victims are being withheld until they are identified and family members notified. Autopsies will be conducted by the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office in Ramsey, Minnesota.
Police are investigating the motive. Police said there are numerous witnesses and that interviews may take time. Thompson is being held on two counts of suspicion of second-degree murder.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was called in to provide crime lab services.