2 charged in 2009 abduction, murder of woman in Bloomington

Two people have been charged with murder in connection to a 2009 abduction in Bloomington.

Bloomington Police said Monday that Cedric Joseph Marks, 45, of Belton, Texas, and Kellee Kristine Sorensen, 34, of Lynden, Washington, were charged with second-degree murder in the death of April Pease.

According to police, Bloomington detectives began focusing on Marks as a person of interest in the case last year after he was arrested on unrelated charges in Texas for murder. Police said Marks had a child with Pease when they lived in Washington state, but in 2009, Pease and her 4-year-old son relocated to a women's shelter in Bloomington because Marks had assaulted her several times and then found her at the shelter she was at in Washington state.

An investigation revealed Marks and Sorensen traveled to Minnesota in March 2009 and found Pease. On March 16, 2009, they allegedly took Pease against her will and drove southbound on Interstate 35.

Marks then allegedly killed Pease at an unknown location while Sorensen sat in the vehicle, detectives learned. Pease's body still hasn't been located.

Staff at the shelter first contacted Pease's mother the day after she was taken, saying she'd abandoned her child at the shelter. Her mother reported Pease missing to Bloomington Police on Sept. 9, 2009, from her home in Washington state.

Marks and Sorensen are both in custody in their home states.

Monday was the 11-year anniversary of Pease's disappearance.