A UND nursing student was arrested today in connection with the October beating death of 38-year-old Joel Lovelien, according to Grand Forks authorities.
Travis Robert Stay, 23, of Princeton, Minn., is charged with murder, authorities say. Murder is a Class AA felony, with a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Stay is a senior in the UND nursing program, according to the UND directory.
He was arrested about 11 a.m. today in his home without incident, according to Grand Forks Lt. Rahn Farder.
Stay was transported to the Grand Forks Correctional Center and made his first appearance in Grand Forks District Court today. His bail was set at $100,000.
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Lovelien, from Grand Forks, was out with friends at the Broken Drum bar on North Washington Street the evening of Oct. 27 when he stepped out of the building to take a cell phone call. It was sometime after he stepped out of the bar that he was brutally beaten to death, according to Lovelien's family.
Lovelien was found in the bar's parking lot with severe head injuries after 11 p.m. He was later pronounced dead by Altru emergency room personnel.
On the night Lovelien was killed, a charter bus carrying pre-Halloween revelers stopped at the Broken Drum bar. Police have said they identified and have spoken to many of the partygoers. The task of tracking the people on the bus was described as complex, because many of them were in costume.
Stay was costumed that evening, but police did not say if Stay was aboard the charter bus.
Early in the investigation, police were seeking four men, two dressed as characters from the Batman movies The Penguin and The Joker, one dressed as a Minnesota Gopher's fan, and another dressed in a yellow-hooded sweatshirt. Farder said he could not comment on whether Stay was one of these four men.
Police have fielded hundreds of tips and have interviewed more than 100 people as part of the investigation, Farder said.
"An investigation like this takes a great deal of time and patience," he said. "When we're talking about a situation like this, we do everything possible to make sure everything was done and every lead is followed up on."
Nadeau can be reached at (701) 780-1118, or (800) 477-6572, ext. 118, or by e-mail snadeau@gfherald.com .
