MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A 54-year-old Minneapolis man has been charged with second-degree murder after allegedly beating a woman and leaving her dead body in St. Louis Park. Police say he wasn’t alone in the crime, either.
According to the criminal complaint, 54-year-old Walter Thompson III, of Minneapolis, had a long history of domestic abuse toward the victim, Nerissa Shaw, 46, of Minneapolis. Shaw’s naked and bruised body was found wrapped in a sheet along the fence line of a St. Louis Park business Tuesday on the 5000 block of Cedar Lake Road. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office also ruled her death a homicide on Friday.
The complaint states that Thompson and Shaw were drinking together on Sept. 13 when he beat her to death. Thompson had been on probation for violating an order of protection involving Shaw.
Senaca Thompson (left) and Rachel Lee Thompson (right). (credit: Hennepin County)
Two days later, security cameras from Thompson’s apartment complex at 15 East Grant Street in Minneapolis showed him and two women carrying and pushing a heavy plastic container from the apartment and into a car.
Police determined the two women were Thompson’s daughter, 25-year-old Rachel Lee Thompson, of Minneapolis, and his sister, 53-year-old Senaca Ann Thompson of Brooklyn Center. Both women have been charged with felony accomplice after the fact.
