MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Authorities said the children of Jetaun Wheeler, accused of killing her boyfriend and hiding his body in the freezer of a Shorewood home, have been found safe.
South Lake Minnetonka Police said Tuesday the children have been placed in protective custody through Hennepin County Child Protection. Police said at the time of the murder, her three young children were living with her but they had disappeared. They were believed to be in hiding so that they couldn’t be taken into protective custody.
Wheeler, 29, has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of her estranged boyfriend. According to charges filed in the case, the victim, who hasn’t been identified, had been missing for two weeks before calling police. Authorities later found him in the freezer of Wheeler’s garage.
The victim, who is from Chicago, told his friends and relatives that he was leaving Wheeler because she has “assaulted him and had been acting crazy.” The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said an autopsy on Saturday revealed he had blunt force trauma injuries to his face and head, including significant lacerations to his left eye and the left side of his head. He also had contusions to both of his upper arms, defensive wounds to the back of his hands and hemorrhaging in the muscles of his neck.
If convicted of her charge, Wheeler could face up to 40 years in prison.
