Murder charge filed four years after woman's disappearance

A Minneapolis man has been charged with murder four years after his then-girlfriend vanished and was never found.

Joshua Lewis Duane Dow had previously been convicted of interference with a dead body and other counts relating to the 2015 disappearance of Adelle "Addie" Jensen. Dow, 35, was charged Monday in Hennepin County District Court with one count of second-degree murder.

"This is still a difficult case because no one has ever been able to find Ms. Jensen's body," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a news release Wednesday. "But thanks to the persistence of Minneapolis police homicide investigators and the unearthing of new evidence, we believe we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Dow committed second-degree murder."

Dow is serving time in the Stillwater prison for prior convictions in the case. He is scheduled for release next February.

Freeman's statement said the murder charge became viable because additional interviews with witnesses, new digital forensic evidence and statements Dow made to others in the past three years filled gaps in the case.

One early hurdle, Freeman's office said, was that without a body or eyewitnesses to the shooting, it was difficult to challenge Dow's assertion that Jensen shot herself.

According to the criminal complaint: Jensen, 25, was killed on Nov. 18, 2015, several days after Dow allegedly physically assaulted her and she said she was leaving him. The two have a daughter together.

Jensen's parents reported her missing that day. Dow allegedly told authorities he hadn't seen her since 3:30 a.m.

Investigators learned from Dow's brother that he was at the home he shared with Dow when he heard a single gunshot. The brother said Dow allegedly told him he had dropped a gun and it went off.

The brother said he and Dow went for a drive and that Dow told him Jensen had shot herself. Dow allegedly asked his brother to go along with the story that Jensen was missing.

"The Defendant pointed a gun at [his brother's] head and told him he would shoot him and their mom if he did not cooperate," the complaint said.

The brother told police Jensen's body was wrapped in plastic in the brothers' duplex basement, and that they later put her body in a box, taped it shut and moved it to a warehouse in the 2500 block of N. 2nd Street in Minneapolis, where they worked.

The brother brought police to the warehouse, but Jensen's body was gone. Investigators believe Dow removed her body and dismembered it in a nearby room.

The couch Jensen had been sitting on when she was killed was "chopped up and disposed of at various locations," the complaint said.

Police mapped Dow's cellphone location data and found it was consistent with the brother's story and "Defendant's own admissions of disposing of [Jensen's] body throughout North Minneapolis." Dow also allegedly researched garbage collection times.

Police inspected 60 to 100 tons of garbage but were unable to find Jensen's body.

Data from Dow's cellphone revealed that on Nov. 11, 2015, he messaged Jensen saying he had "knocked" her out. She responded with a message saying she was leaving him. Dow allegedly told her he would get custody of their daughter and Jensen would never see her again, the complaint said.

Chao Xiong • 612-270-4708 Twitter: @ChaoStrib