Shooter named in Cloquet hotel homicides as cops seek motive

DULUTH – Patrick Jeffrey Roers, visiting Cloquet as part of his new job as a tree excavator, was in his truck in the Super 8 parking lot listening to music on Monday night when a man he had never met shot him twice in the back of the head, killing him instantly — the second victim of a double homicide that briefly shut down the city 20 miles southeast of here.

"It was bad timing," his sister Ellen Roers said Wednesday.

The Cloquet Police Department identified Nicholas Elliot Lenius, 32, as the shooter who first shot the hotel's front desk clerk Shellby Marie Trettel, 22, and later turned the gun on himself. Lenius, of Ramsey, Minn., had two decade-old alcohol-related gross misdemeanors on his record but no violent crimes. He was found by authorities outside the hotel off Big Lake Road.

The Cloquet Police Department, which is leading the investigation, has not publicly identified a motive. Roers said her brother, an outdoorsman with 8 acres near his parents' home in Deer River, Minn., did not know Lenius; Trettel's family described the incident as "a senseless act of violence," in a public comment posted to Facebook.

The Lenius family did not immediately respond to a message.

"Our department and law enforcement partners are dedicated to working diligently in investigating this incident, aiming to bring clarity and understanding to the circumstances surrounding it as quickly as possible," Cloquet Police Chief Derek Randall said in a news release issued Wednesday morning.

A Super 8 employee called 911 about 6:30 p.m. Monday to report that a co-worker "looked like she had been attacked," according to a report from the Cloquet Police Department. Trettel, described by her family as a "caring, compassionate, wonderfully colorful person," was taken from the scene in an ambulance and pronounced dead at St. Luke's hospital in Duluth.

While investigating, officers found Roers inside his truck on the hotel property and sent out an "active shooter incident" warning, reporting that several victims were involved. The police chief asked residents to shelter in place, and several local businesses shut down early for the night. It was the first notification of its kind that Randall has issued in his more than 20-year career, he said. Police used onsite surveillance video that had captured much of the scene to determine that the shooter was dead.

Roers described her brother as a "gentle giant," who reminded her of country artist Chris Stapleton. He had a long, bushy beard and always elicited smiles. Patrick Roers had served in the Air Force. He loved to read and seemed to have a photographic memory, she said. His family called him "Bubba"; his new boss said he had a "genuine personality."

"I knew he would be a good fit for our team," Chris Storlie said in an email to the family.

Trettel, too, made an immediate impact. On Wednesday, the Anchorage Wolverines Hockey team, recent hotel guests, donated $1,600 to an online fundraiser started by one of Trettel's best friends.

"Sincere condolences from the entire Anchorage Wolverines Hockey team players, coaches and families who spent the past weekend at the hotel where they were met with smiles and positivity from Shellby," they wrote on the GoFundMe site.

The Minnesota Wilderness hosted — and swept — the team in a North American Hockey League series in Cloquet.

Staff writer Jana Hollingsworth contributed to this story.