Crow Wing County Amber Alert: Man charged with murder, kidnapping

(FOX9) – Suspect in the fatal shooting of a neighbor and the kidnapping of a pregnant mother with four children who triggered an Amber Alert in central Minnesota last week is now facing charges.

What we know

Thirty-five-year-old Chad Aanerud was charged Monday with 12 charges, including murder, kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct, arson, assault and theft.

Aanerud was arrested early Friday morning following the shooting, arson and Amber Alert search. The criminal charges accuse Aanerud of fatally shooting his neighbor, 62-year-old Lyle Maske, and then kidnapping his pregnant girlfriend and her four children in the early morning hours of November 1.

The mother and children were rescued, and Aanerud was arrested a few hours later after the Amber Alert was declared.

Context

The allegations refer to multiple parties.

• Suspicious: Chad Aanerud
• Shooting victim: Lyle Maske.
• Kidnapping victims: A pregnant mother identified only as NAD and her four children. FOX 9 learns the mother is Aanerud’s girlfriend.
• Neighbor witnesses: Maske’s wife and a woman identified as KLS, who lived in Maske’s home.

According to the allegations, NAD’s pregnant mother lived in a second apartment on a property that apparently belongs to the NAD children’s grandparents. My grandfather’s house was a house destroyed by fire.

Timeline

The timeline below is based on the events detailed in the criminal complaint. It will start early in the morning on Friday, November 1.

• October 31 around 9 p.m.: Aanerud gets into an argument with NAD, the pregnant mother.
• Aanerud demands that his mother have sex with him. When she refuses, he gets a gun and threatens her children.
• After sexually assaulting his mother, Aanerud begins pouring fuel on his grandparents’ house.
• The mother wakes up the children and tells them to run to the neighbor’s house.
• The children go to Maske’s house to ask for help. They tell Maske that Aanerud was robbing their grandparents’ house.
• Maske decides to go next door to see what’s going on.
• Maske is taken away by KLS in the driveway of a neighboring property. Maske then returns home.
• Maske confronts Aanerud, and Aanerud shoots Maske.
• About ten minutes later, Aanerud shows up at Maske’s house with a rifle. The pregnant mother sits in the front seat of Aanerud’s vehicle.
• Aanerud demands that the witness give up “his children”, forcing his way into Maske’s house and firing shots in the process. The charges say he also threatened to kill Maske’s wife in the process.
• Aanerud eventually forces the pregnant mother and four children into the vehicle and drive away.
• KLS returns to the house next door and finds Lyle Maske lying on the ground with a gunshot wound.
• At approximately 1:50 a.m., deputies responded to a report of a shooting. While trying to revive Maske, they notice a fire in the house belonging to the grandparents of the kidnapped children. This house is burned to the ground.
• At 2:19 a.m. Maske was pronounced dead at the scene.
• Amber Alert is announced in the morning.
• At approximately 7:20 a.m., Van Aanerud was spotted in Little Falls, Minnesota. The mother and children are rescued and Aanerud is arrested.

After the arrest

In an interview with investigators, the complaint says Aanerud admitted to shooting Lyle Maske but claimed it was an accident. However, the allegations quote Aanerud as saying that Maske “stuck his nose” where it shouldn’t have been.

Deputies say Aanerud admitted to setting fire to his grandparents’ home, claiming the owner’s wife told him to stage a burglary and burn the house down to get the insurance money. However, the grandfather told deputies that he did not have any home insurance.