New court filing: Woman's beaten body discovered in her Fridley home in late May

A 55-year-old woman's badly beaten body was discovered nearly four months ago inside her Fridley home, according to a court filing Wednesday.

The body of Gara L. Ladwig was located by her godson early in the evening of May 30 in the kitchen of her house that she and her son shared in the 6200 block of NE. Ben More Drive, the filing read.

The document goes on to say that a police officer arrived and saw that Ladwig had numerous bruises on her body, significant injuries to her face, and "she was cold to the touch and not breathing."

Her death was later ruled to be a homicide by the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office. The examiner's office has yet to say approximately when Ladwig died, but a neighbor reported seeing her on May 22, according to the court filing.

The filing added that "there is no evidence to indicate that anyone other than [her 21-year-old son] was with Gara at the time of her death. ... There was no sign of forced entry."

No arrests have been made in connection with Ladwig's death. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged. Court records did not reveal the son's current whereabouts.

Wednesday's filing with the court was made by an Anoka County sheriff's detective in order to win a judge's permission to examine the son's records from a Roseville medical provider.

Following an inquiry about the killing on Wednesday from the Star Tribune, the Anoka County Sheriff's Office issued a news release late Thursday morning acknowledging Ladwig's death.

The release from Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Tierney Peters did not explain why news of the killing wasn't released earlier. Peters elaborated later that until the Star Tribune's inquiry for information Wednesday night, "our office [had] not received any requests for information regarding this investigation."

Peters said charges in connection with the beating are pending further investigation by the Sheriff's Office and other law enforcement agencies.

Ladwig's daughter told the detective two days after her mother's body was found that her brother "had a history of aggressive and violent behavior toward Gara," the search warrant affidavit read.

She added that her brother lacked the mental ability to care for himself, and her mother "would at times be unresponsive to [her brother], and this would cause [him] to become increasingly upset to the point that he would get violent with Gara."

A search of the home by law enforcement led to the seizure of a T-shirt and towels with blood on them, a hammer and drug paraphernalia, the filing continued.

Ladwig's online obituary noted that she died "after 55 years of courage, kindness, and hope."

She grew up in northeast Minneapolis and graduated from Minneapolis Edison High School, where she met Paul Ladwig, her future husband, who died in 2004.

"They were together for 18 short years that included numerous hunting and fishing trips, 2 children and an enormous amount of shenanigans that would lead to wet your pants laughter for everyone involved," the obituary continued.