Man admits hiding in Eden Prairie basement for 2 days, then killing owner

A 24-year-old man has pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing his friend's grandfather in the elderly man's Eden Prairie home.

Nathan Foth, of Le Sueur, Minn., hid in the basement for two days before he carried out the killing. He entered a plea Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court and remains jailed ahead of sentencing on July 14 for second-degree murder in the death last summer of 74-year-old Allen Retzer.

Under questioning before the court, Foth said he had been in a hospital emergency room two days before the killing for a drug episode.

Having nowhere to go after being released, he went to Retzer's home near Mitchell Lake, having been there previously. He entered through a basement window and hid there for two days, he told the court.

Foth said he was hearing voices and was talking to himself, but the voices had stopped by the time he went upstairs with a knife and killed Retzer.

Eight days later, the Utah State Patrol found Retzer's van in Draper. A search of the vehicle turned up Foth's fingerprints on two water bottles from Retzer's home and a rifle case, prosecutors said.

Foth was arrested Aug. 23 on a bus heading from Oregon to Minnesota.