Man charged with killing Minneapolis woman found under tarp in Olmsted County
Timothy Daniel Loftus (Olmsted County Jail)
A Rochester man has been charged in the death of a Minneapolis woman this past summer.
Thursday, Olmsted County prosecutors charged 41-year-old Timothy Daniel Loftus with third-degree murder and interfering with a dead body in connection to 28-year-old Tia Arleth’s death.
RELATED: Minneapolis woman’s body found under tarp in Olmsted County
Hubbard Broadcasting affiliate KAAL-TV reports that Loftus has been in the Olmsted County jail since July on unrelated charges but is believed to have given Arleth drugs that caused her to overdose.
Her body was found wrapped in a tarp on June 17 in the area of County Road 2 and 70th Avenue Northeast.
Court documents state that witnesses pointed to Loftus, with one telling investigators that Loftus admitted he’d given Arleth heroin and fentanyl, then moved her body to a trailer. Videos from a doorbell camera also showed the trailer in front of Loftus’ home, with a blue tarp matching the one Arleth’s body was found under.
Loftus is scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday morning. If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison on the murder charge and up to three years for interfering with a body.