Joel Lovelien was beaten to death at a Halloween party in North Dakota in 2007.
As some background into Joel, he was born on October 8, 1969 in Bismarck, North Dakota. He was raised by his father Marvin and step-mother Judy. Joel’s birth mother is a woman named Rose Glaser. Due to blended families, Joel had at least six siblings that we know of.
Joel lived in both North Dakota and Minnesota when he was growing up. He graduated from Bagley High School in Minnesota in 1988. He went on to attend the University of North Dakota and obtained degrees in math and computer science. His sister said of him: “He was brilliant. He was a geek. He was a computer nerd.”
After he graduated, Joel worked in Information Services at the Grand Forks Clinic, before going on to work as Technical Systems Analyst for Altru Health System.
Joel married a woman named Heidi Hosley in 1992. They had a daughter together, Alexa. They would later divorce.
Joe met another woman, Heather Eastling in 2007. They became engaged and had set their wedding date for 08-08-08.
Joel’s family and friends said that he loved spending time with his daughter, playing golf and bowling.
On the night of Saturday October 27, 2007, Joel and Heather decided to attend a Halloween party at the Broken Drum Lounge and Casino in Grand Forks, ND.
Grand Forks has a population of only 53,000, but North Dakota has more bars per capita than any other state in the nation.
Joel dressed up as a hockey player – he wore a green jersey for the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux. Heather dressed up as a mechanic.
Being a few days before Halloween, the venue was busy. There was a group of around 50 young adults who had arrived at the bar in a party bus. They were on a bar crawl through the town and were doing shots of alcohol. Heather and Joel were not with this group. Some of the party bus people were dressed up and their costumes included a cowboy, a hunter, a lion, a gangster and Paris Hilton.
At around 11.30pm, Joel got a call on his cell phone and he went outside to answer it, because the bar was so noisy.
He soon came back inside and said to Heather “’Hey, somebody got left by the bus. I’m going to go check on him.’ … He kissed me and went outside.” (The bus refers to the party bus/group that we mentioned).
A few minutes later, someone ran into the bar screaming ‘Call 911!”
Heather discovered that Joel was the one who needed medical attention. She found Joel lying on the pavement.
“Joel was laying there with blood all over the cement near his head in the parking lot,” Heather said, crying. “We couldn’t get a response out of him.”
Joel was rushed to the hospital. Coincidentally, the hospital was the place where he had been working as a computer tech.
Joel died at the hospital. He had been beaten so badly that the bones in his face had broken and he had choked to death on his own blood.
When police arrived at the bar, the party bus had left but there were still about 80 patrons at the venue.
Police obtained descriptions of people who had been seen near Joel, and their investigation was made difficult because they were all in costume – a clown, a construction worker, a lion etc. “If you’re going to find the Penguin and the Joker and the rest of them,” said Grand Forks Police Chief John Packett, “you’ve got to find them pretty quick.”
The only evidence found at the scene of the crime was a yellow paw/foot from some type of costume in the parking lot with blood on it.
Police managed to mobilize quickly and started going to other venues in the area, attempting to track down some of the witnesses.
According to NBC, they found the clown at a bar in Grand Forks. His name is Jon Deziel (22). He was crying and his hands were shaking and this made the police suspicious.
Jon told police that he was crying because he had an argument with his girlfriend. He was taken to the police station for questioning where he stopped talking and demanded a lawyer.
Police also found the cowboy that had been seen at the scene. His real name is Bryce Larson. Police said that Bryce gave them a fake name and birthdate and was also physically aggressive towards them.
Police said that Bryce asked an interesting question. He wanted to know if the victim was wearing a green jersey with the initials UND on it.
The following day, police asked Jon and other witnesses to return to the station for questioning.
They were all now sober and were able to give their version of events of the night Joel died.
They said that while the bus was at the Broken Drum, two of the passengers got into a fight outside the venue. These two people had been dressed as a hunter and the other was dressed in a basic lion costume that had been made out of a yellow hoodie.
After the fight, they told the lion that he could not get back on the bus. Before the bus left, they saw the lion talking to a man in a green hockey jersey.
Within two days, a man named Travis Stay (23) approached police. He was a nursing student and he told authorities that he had been at the Broken Drum on the night of Joel’s murder.
He also told police that he had been in a fight with the person dressed as a hunter. Travis had bruises on his face and cuts on his hands.
He told police that he had been wearing the lion costume that night and that had thrown it away.
“Why did you throw it away?” asked Detective Duane Simon.
“Because it was full of blood,” answered Travis.
Travis would tell the media that he let police recover his costume and he voluntarily gave them his shoes. He did not ask for a search warrant or a lawyer. He said he did this because he was innocent.
He said he was so drunk that there was a one hour time period he could not account for. He said he didn’t remember talking to Joel but knew that he had not hurt anyone.
“I just knew I didn’t have anything to do with it,” said Travis.
Another man would come forward and say that Travis had thrown a punch at him later that night, after Joel’s death. Other witnesses would say that Travis got into a taxi, covered in blood that night.
Police tested Travis’ items for DNA. Some of the blood on the hoodie and pants matched Joel’s.
Based on the witness statements and DNA evidence, Travis was charged with Joel’s murder.
Prosecutors offered him a deal — less than 10 years in prison if he’d plead guilty to manslaughter. He turned it down, he says, without hesitation. By going to trial, he was facing a possible sentence of life in prison.
When the case went to trial, prosecutors portrayed Travis as a man who was bitter and bruised after losing a physical fight. They said he attacked Joel, a Good Samaritan, who had come to his aid.
Law enforcement also spoke about some of the only evidence found at the scene.
“Most importantly,” said Detective Mike Sholes. “none of the other costumes matched the paw that was left behind at the crime scene.”
Jurors did see holes in the case. Joel was 6’3 and 240 lbs. Travis is 5’9 and around 160 lbs. It was argued that there was no way that Travis could have killed Joel due to their physical stature differences.
A blood spatter expert was also called to testify. That person said that Joel’s blood could have ended up on Travis in numerous ways. It was theorised that Travis was actually trying to help Joel and that is how blood was transferred.
An ER doctor testified that the cuts found on Travis’ hands were not severe enough to have come from beating a man to death.
Travis’ defense tried to cast suspicion on other people from the party bus. They gave the scenario that when Joel had gone to help Travis, one or more people had jumped them both.
“I think that they beat us both up,” said Travis.
The prosecution also produced a witness from that night named Steve Raasakka, who claimed that while walking home from the Broken Drum, he was followed by Travis, who subsequently took a failed swing at Raasakka and fell to the ground. However, the defence used this incident to their advantage, stating that if Travis was so drunk that he fell over while attempting to punch James Wavra and Steve Raasakka, how would he have been capable of beating Joel Lovelien to death?
CCTV from the Broken Drum was also examined in court.
According to NBC:
On the tape, three and a half minutes after Joel leaves the bar for the last time, the man in the clown costume can be seen exiting the bar. That would mean the party bus hadn’t departed yet, because everyone agreed that the clown left the Broken Drum on the bus. If the bus was still outside, Joel, Travis and some of the costumed partiers from the bus could have been together in the parking lot for at least three and a half minutes.
The trial ran for nine days. It took the jurors just five hours to acquit Travis of Joel’s murder.
Heather said she was “devastated” by the verdict, and still doesn’t understand the acquittal. “If he’s really not guilty, then who is?” she asked. “Somebody knows something.”
Travis spoke after his acquittal.
“I guess I’ve known the whole time I’m innocent,” he said. “I’m just fortunate enough for the jury to have seen through and seen my innocence.”
“It all boils down to the cops jumping to conclusions. That’s what this whole case has been based off of. That’s what our defense theory supported, and obviously, it was a good defense.”
Nobody else has ever been charged in relation to Joel’s murder. Police have said that none of the other party bus members are suspects in the case.
Now retired, Detective Mike Sholes said he still believes the evidence against Travis is strong. “There’s not one stitch of physical evidence to suggest anybody else was involved,” he said.
Travis never became a nurse. Instead, he became an attorney.
He offered a public apology to Joel’s family, saying he is sorry for drinking too much and “for being a part of the equation that night.” He is adamant that he did not kill Joel.
“He was my only friend in the parking lot that night,” said Travis.
SOURCE LIST
https://www.amundsonfuneralhome.com/obituaries/4933058
https://luminolpod.com/blog/f/the-murder-of-joel-lovelien