Second suspect in deaths of 4 found in Wisconsin cornfield arrested in Arizona

The fugitive Antoine D. Suggs, wanted for questioning in the quadruple murder discovered Sunday in a western Wisconsin cornfield, has been arrested in Arizona, the Dunn County Sheriff's Office reported.

Suggs, who turned himself in to the Gilbert, Ariz., police Friday, will be extradited to Wisconsin to face Dunn County investigators.

The arrest came two days after St. Paul police arrested Suggs' father, who has been charged with helping hide the victims' bodies. There have been no descriptions yet of who shot the victims or where the shootings took place, but new information contained in court documents said Suggs was seen at a St. Paul bar with victim Nitosha Flug-Presley and two of her friends hours before they were found dead, along with a fourth victim.

Flug-Presley's mother and aunt told investigators that Suggs had been dating her during visits to St. Paul from his Arizona home, according to a criminal complaint filed in Dunn County District Court. The two were last seen together by several witnesses at the White Squirrel bar on W. Seventh Street early Sunday morning, according to the complaint.

Flug-Presley's father, Damone Presley Sr., said Friday that he was relieved to hear the news about Suggs.

"I am excited that he is arrested because it could have been somebody else's family that was going to pay a price for his devilish deeds," he said.

"There's no reason to this even happening, period. None of it still makes sense. It was a total heinous crime that should have never happened."

The bodies discovered Sunday afternoon by a local farmer near Wheeler, Wis., were identified as Flug-Presley, 30, Matthew Pettus, 26, Jasmine C. Sturm, 30, and Loyace Foreman III, 35. Each had been shot at least once in the head and left in a black Mercedes driven into a cornfield.

Suggs' father, Darren Lee McWright, 56, of St. Paul, was arrested Wednesday and charged with four felony counts of hiding a corpse. Surveillance video taken from a gas station in Wheeler, Wis., showed Suggs and McWright there but in separate cars, one of which was the Mercedes found Sunday.

The criminal complaint filed for McWright's charges included the following narrative:

At 2:18 p.m. on Sunday, the Dunn County Sheriff's Office got a report of a black Mercedes hidden in a cornfield in Sheridan Township near the Sheridan Town Hall. Four gunshot victims found inside the vehicle were examined by the Dunn County Medical Examiner. All were dead.

The 2008 Mercedes-Benz GL was registered to Amber Allison Neal and Dominique Saville Neal-Hill. Neal told authorities that Neal-Hill was supposed to drive the Mercedes to Georgia, but Neal-Hill told police that he had given it to Suggs.

An examination of the Mercedes found pools of blood on the floor and on the driver's side wheel well. Blood also was dripping from the vehicle, according to the complaint.

A press statement sent out Monday generated a tip from a witness who said he saw two Black men near the Sheridan Town Hall between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Sunday. One of them wore a "I am black history" T-shirt, the witness said.

A sheriff's deputy went to the Bridgestop gas station in Wheeler to view surveillance video and saw images of a Black man in a "I am black history" shirt pull up to the station in a black Nissan Rogue. The man walked into the gas station, bought some items and exited.

A black Mercedes that matched the one found in the cornfield pulled up to the Nissan Rogue. The two drivers appeared to exchange something, then drove off.

A deputy searched the area at the gas station and found dark-colored stains suspected to be blood, according to the complaint.

The surveillance video also clearly showed the license plate of the Nissan.

Investigators went to the St. Paul home of the vehicle's registered owner and found Darren E. Suggs, who said his brother Antoine had the Nissan on Sunday.

After being shown images from the Bridgestop video surveillance, Darren Suggs identified the other driver as his father, Darren Lee McWright.

Investigators learned from Flug-Presley's relatives that she had been dating Antoine. Forensic examinations of Flug-Presley's phone and Matthew Pettus' phone showed that both were in communication with Suggs, who also went by the nickname Tweezy. Suggs also has a tattoo on his right forearm with the words "baby tweezy."

Witnesses at the White Squirrel told investigators that they saw Flug-Presley and Suggs there on Saturday night.

Video surveillance from outside the bar shows Sturm getting into the passenger side of a dark SUV, sitting in the same spot where her body was later found.

Investigators also learned that someone purchased a Delta Air Lines flight for Antoine Suggs that would have had him departing Phoenix on Sunday evening bound for Minneapolis.

Whoever bought the ticket paid for it less than an hour before departure. An agent with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension contacted Delta, and the airline confirmed that Suggs never checked in for the flight.

Matt McKinney • 612-673-7329