Man charged in stabbing death of Waite Park woman in apartment

Authorities have charged a 28-year-old man in the death of a Waite Park woman whose body was found during a welfare check by police.

Stearns County officials charged Jarquez Javon Bedford on Friday with second-degree murder with a dangerous weapon. Bedford has been in custody in Ramsey County since Feb. 14, after being arrested for a felony probation violation warrant for a 2018 robbery in Kansas.

The body of Andrea Cottew, 52, was found on Feb. 6 during a welfare check in her apartment in the 300 block of Park Meadows Drive in Waite Park.

According to the charges, Waite Park police found the body of Cottew at around 9:35 a.m. with stab wounds. The Midwest Medical Examiner's Office determined that she suffered three to four knife wounds across her neck, and said her death was a homicide.

Authorities found no signs of forced entry into her apartment, but her phone, wallet, apartment keys and key fob were missing. They reviewed surveillance footage and found that Cottew entered her apartment building just past noon on Feb. 5, when a man law enforcement identified as Bedford knocked at the building's locked entry door.

"The two talked briefly and then walked together toward the door of the first floor hallway," the charges read. "Within an hour, the defendant was observed on video exiting the back door of the apartment building. The defendant's sweatshirt had been turned inside out."

Cottew is not seen on surveillance footage after walking away with Bedford, but he's seen coming in and out of the building for hours afterwards.

DNA testing from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension laboratory also claimed that Bedford's DNA was on a knife with Cottew's blood on it, as well as on her purse and a knotted up sweatshirt in her bedroom.