This is one of the most disturbing cases I’ve heard of. Female pedophiles are rare, but they do exist. Melissa Norby was one of them.
At 3:30 am on June 22, 2016, a 911 call reported a house on fire in Bemidji, Minnesota. When firemen arrived the entire trailer was engulfed in flames. Once they put out the fire, they discovered a body inside, that of a woman. So they called in the police.
Rob Fraik and Paul Gherardi are with the Minnesota BCA, Bureau of Crime Analysis, and they answered the call. The burned trailer is in a large trailer park called Hillcrest Manor. Thirty-five year-old Melissa Norby lives there. Her body is found underneath a mattress and her hands are bound. There is the smell of accelerant everywhere and a gas can in the bedroom. Police immediately begin looking for her 12 year old son and are relieved to find him at a cousin’s house.
Friends describe Melissa as very troubled. She was raped by an adult male at 10 years old and it forever changed her. She began hanging out with strange men and being promiscuous. It was always the wrong kind of men. (The right kind of men don’t take advantage of children.) Larry Erickson was supposedly her ex-boyfriend but he denied to police that they ever had a physical relationship. When police asked to see Larry’s phone, he immediately began destroying it. So police took the phone from him. There is nothing that implicates Larry in the murder on that phone, just his personal porn collection. He has an alibi so they return his phone and let him go.
In the victim’s car, they find mail with the name Rob Auchus on it. He left town on a bus immediately after the crime. So they call the bus company and have it stopped at the next station. There the police question him. He’s leaving town for medical treatment. It’s completely legit.
The autopsy reveals that Melissa died of asphyxiation, specifically ligature strangulation. That’s when something like a rope or cord is used to strangle you.
By now it’s light out and Amanda Sisco shows up. She immediately begins screaming for her 5 year old daughter Brittany who Melissa was watching. Amanda and Melissa were like sisters, very old friends, and quite often Melissa would invite Brittany over. So police question Melissa’s son, trying to discover who she may have been seeing. He tells them Chance. And Chance has a food truck. The son also tells police he doesn’t trust Chance. Chance gives him the creeps. Police are already suspicious because men who give nicknames but not their real names are usually hiding a very dark past.
The City Clerk looks up recent licenses for food trucks. The most recent one is owned by Jacob William Kinn, a known pedophile out on parole. Police immediately go to Kinn’s home. He’s gone but there are several gas cans outside.
Jakes’ probation officer reaches him and tells him to report immediately. Jake doesn’t show until midnight. From the knees down, his pants are covered in wet grass and damp. His boots are also wet and covered with damp grass. When police examine his vehicle, it has long blades of high grass stuck in the undercarriage. Jake’s cell phone shows he was in Big Fork although he tells police he was at Clear Lake. He claims he and Melissa were friends and he doesn’t know Brittany. They take his clothes, his phone, and his Jeep. They detain him as long as they can but have to release him at 4:30 am.
The moment the police learn of the Big Fork connection they go there, looking for any sign of Brittany in deep tall grass. Jake’s brother owns 40 acres there. That’s suspicious right there. They see tracks through the tall grass and immediately get out on foot, following those tracks. Over the hill they find an abandoned camper top near the treeline. The door is taped shut. Police open the door, not knowing what they will find. They find a living Brittany Sisco, but she is traumatized. They remove her from the camper and take photos of her to send to other law enforcement so they know she’s alive. They catch Kinn on his way back to the camper. He pulled over and fell asleep behind the wheel of his dad’s vehicle.
When police examine phone messages between Jake and Melissa they discover the couple had been plotting to kidnap and rape Brittany for weeks. Melissa invited her over with the explicit intention of watching Jake repeatedly rape her. This was some kind of sex game they played and they had probably done it before. Something went wrong this time and Jake killed Melissa, taking Brittany with him after he set the trailer ablaze. Although Jake claims Melissa died of erotic asphyxiation, there’s no evidence of that.
Jacob William Kinn is sentenced to 52 years, not nearly enough time. Brittany is never able to talk about what happened to her.
Although Jacob’s father and brother helped him, neither are charged.
Bibliography
Homicide Hunter: American Detective, Season 4, Episode 2: Mr. Innocent.
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