Man submits plea agreement in case of murder of woman found buried on his property
Richard Melvin Peterson II (Isanti County Jail)
An Isanti man has entered a petition to plead guilty to the murder of a woman who was found buried on his property in 2021.
Court documents show that 38-year-old Richard Melvin Peterson II made the decision to enter an Alford plea to one count of second-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Amanda Jo Vangrinsven.
As part of the plea agreement, the charge of interfering with a dead body would be dismissed and Peterson would be sentenced to around 24 years in prison.
The Alford plea also means that Peterson is maintaining his innocence but believes he’d be found guilty based on the evidence the state has. A judge still has to accept the plea deal.
RELATED: Isanti woman found shot, buried on property of man she was last seen with; suspect arrested
On Aug. 5, 2021, Vangrinsven left Rum River Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2735 in Isanti, where she worked, to go to a bar in Bethel with a person identified in the search warrant as Peterson. She was spotted leaving the bar with the man later that night and was not seen again.
After days of searching, her body was found in Athens Township on Peterson’s property. Investigators determined she’d been shot in the head.
Peterson had been scheduled for plea hearings earlier this week and next week. If no agreement was reached, he was tentatively set to go on trial next week.
A sentencing date for Peterson hasn’t yet been set.