A North Dakota teenager is facing second-degree murder charges after he allegedly stabbed his 14-year-old girlfriend to death in Minnesota.
Isaac Arthur Arndt, 18, allegedly hugged his girlfriend Jaelyn Walker after he had already stabbed her several times in the town of Moorhead, Minnesota near the North Dakota border. According to a probable cause statement filed in court, Arndt walked into the Clay County Law Enforcement Center on the night of Aug. 19 at round 11 p.m.
He said he was there to report an assault but officers noticed two cuts on his finger. Arndt claimed that he and Walker were in Gooseberry park when an “unknown white male” started to follow them. Arndt claimed when he ran away the man started to stab him
90 minutes after Arndt made his statement to police, Walker’s mother called the Moorhead Police Department to file a missing persons report. Police used her Snapchat map to locate her phone which led them to a bicycle trail near Elm Street and 6th Avenue South.
They eventually located Walker's body near a river near a wooded area along the trail. Police discovered she was suffering from multiple stab wounds and found a knife and a lot of blood near her body.
Moorhead detectives then went to the hospital where Arndt was being treated for his wounds. Police advised Arndt of his rights and questioned him further on his story of the man chasing him and Walker through the park. Detectives noted several inconsistencies in his story leading Arndt to eventually admit that he and Walker had been in a romantic relationship for several months which had recently ended.
Arndt then changed his story, claiming that he and Walker were in the park when Walker inquired about his new girlfriend. According to Arndt when he refused to tell her she attacked him. Arndt then admitted to stabbing Walker several times.
“Defendant stated he started to ‘slash’ at the victim and that he stabbed the victim about 13 times. Defendant stated he fled the scene on his scooter and along the way he discarded his phone, his backpack, and the scooter,” detectives wrote.
In a second interview with detectives and prosecutors, Arndt says after he stabbed Walker he saw her “lying there suffering”. The probable cause affidavit stated that “Defendant stated that he then cut her throat, gave her a hug and stabbed her one more time in the back.”
Arndt then said he dragged her body to the river and left her there. After a search of Arndt’s Fargo, North Dakota, home police allegedly located bloody socks and a towel hidden in a kitchen cabinet. They also found bloody toilet paper in the bathroom, according to the affidavit.
Text messages between Walker and Ardnt showed they had planned to meet at the park at around 7:30 p.m. on the night of the murder. Police also spoke with several witnesses who claimed to have seen two people matching Ardnt and Walker’s description around the same time the affidavit said.
Police also say they recovered surveillance camera footage showing Ardnt leaving the wooded area around where Walker’s body was found and then leaving on his scooter. Ardnt was arrested in Fargo and extradited back to Minnesota where a judge set a $1 million bond. He is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 19.
Walker’s family described their daughter in her obituary as “our beautiful, blue eyed, fearless, and feisty girl who loved singing and, although she kept it to herself, she had a beautiful Voice.” Her family said she loved animals, especially cats.
“Her quiet time was spent in her room after making herself her macaroni and tomato juice, which was her favorite. If you had the privilege of being her friend, she would let you join too as she loved her closest friends fiercely,” her family wrote. “You’d never find Jae in anything but sweatpants and a sweatshirt, wrapped in one of her favorite blankets with a power fan blowing in her face. If it wasn’t comfy, she wasn’t having it.”
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