DULUTH - A Duluth man on supervised release from a murder conviction was found guilty of kidnapping and raping a woman on a northeastern Minnesota logging road in 2021.
Paroled murderer found guilty of kidnapping, raping woman in rural St. Louis County
Dennis John Hannuksela was on supervised release after serving 28 years in prison for a 1987 murder.
November 7, 2023 at 8:51PM
Dennis John Hannuksela, 64, was convicted of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of kidnapping by a jury in St. Louis County District Court on Monday. A sentencing date has not been set. First-degree sexual conduct carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.
According to court documents, Hannuksela and the woman who considered him a father were smoking marijuana together after he ditched a couch on a road north of Hwy. 53 and Swan Lake Road in St. Louis County in May 2021. She tried to escape after he lunged at her, but he caught her, bound her arms with zip ties and raped her, court records said. Then he took her home. She was treated at a Cloquet hospital.
At the time, Hannuksela was on parole for the 1987 killing of Arthur Nelson, a Landfall, Minn., man whose bones were discovered on the Iron Range. Before he was convicted of that crime, he escaped custody by pretending to have a leg injury then throwing down his crutches and "taking off like a sprinter" during a doctor's appointment, according to a 1989 article in the Star Tribune. He was found 35 hours later.
He served 28 years in prison before being put on supervised release in 2017.
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