Judge Says Priest Was Funeral Home Killer

HUDSON, Wis. — There is overwhelming evidence that the Rev. Ryan Erickson killed two men in a Hudson funeral home in 2002, a St. Croix County judge said Monday after a day of testimony revealed the priest to be a man consumed by guns, alcohol and gay pornography.
"I conclude that Ryan Erickson probably committed the crimes in question," Judge Eric Lundell said. "On a scale of one to 10, I would consider it a 10. It is a very strong case of circumstantial evidence."
Erickson was an associate pastor at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Hudson when Dan O'Connell and intern James Ellison were shot to death Feb. 5, 2002. The priest had the "motive and opportunity" to commit the murders, Lundell said.
St. Croix County District Attorney Eric Johnson said at least nine pieces of circumstantial evidence — including a confession to a church deacon — connected Erickson to the slayings. He laid out that evidence in a so-called John Doe proceeding, held to close the lengthy homicide investigation with a judge's opinion about who committed the crimes.
Investigators, who said they may have been overly cautious because Erickson was a priest, offered gut-wrenching details of Erickson's secret life behind closed rectory doors and chilling accounts of statements and actions made in public.
Erickson professed a love of God, but witnesses described a man who downloaded hardcore pornography — much of it involving boys. One file, which included 40 pornographic photos, was in a computer file labeled: Holy Mass/Prayers.
According to investigators' reports, when Erickson was 6 years old, he had sexual contact with a 4-year-old cousin; when he was 19, he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old; when he was 21, he was investigated for allegedly sexually assaulting a boy at a summer resort.
More recently, Erickson apparently "groomed" one teen boy for sex during drinking binges and sleepovers at St. Patrick's rectory and was attempting to do so with another, but that boy became uncomfortable.
Both testified during the court proceeding.
One victim, whose testimony was crucial to the investigation, said he and Erickson met while the then-teenager attended St. Anne Parish in Somerset, Wis., where Erickson had a weekend assignment while in the seminary. They met again at St. Agnes High School in St. Paul, where he attended classes. Erickson, who was at the time assigned to St. Patrick's, invited the boy for a visit to the Hudson church.
From 2000 to 2002, the victim testified, he spent many of his weekends at the rectory with Erickson, watching horror movies and playing drinking games. He estimated that Erickson had supplied him more than 1,200 cans of beer and the same amount of liquor shots. The victim said he had seen at least two handguns owned by the priest.
Once the boy was drunk, he testified, Erickson would invite him to his bed, where he molested him on about 10 occasions.
While he may not have known about the molestation of the then-teenager, O'Connell knew something was amiss, said District Attorney Johnson. And O'Connell's decision to confront Erickson would become the motive for the priest to kill him and then Ellison, a University of Minnesota mortuary science intern from Barron, Wis., who apparently stumbled upon the scene of the killing.
School bus driver Mary Pagel testified she had coffee with O'Connell on the morning of his death. She said O'Connell asked her whether she ever saw the priest inappropriately touch a child, and O'Connell indicated he planned to meet with the priest later that day.
It isn't clear what prompted O'Connell's suspicions, but he and his family attended St. Patrick's.
Pagel, who had training in reporting sexual abuse, said she told O'Connell she was concerned about confronting Erickson and urged him to contact police.
"Dan told me, 'I can handle it,' " Pagel said.
Michael Swanby, who said Erickson was a former friend, testified that several months after the killings the priest told him he had an argument with O'Connell the day before the slayings.
"We were sitting around drinking some beer," Swanby said. "He did not elaborate."
Swanby also testified that while they were talking about the murder of O'Connell, Erickson said: "The devil is gone," or "The demon is gone."
More than a year after the killings, Erickson was transferred to Ladysmith, Wis., and then to Hurley, Wis.
Russell Lundgren, deacon at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Hurley, spoke with Erickson after Mass one morning, the day after police questioned him the first time.
"He tells me that 'I done it, and they were going to catch me,' " Lundgren said.
During the conversation, the two men were seated less than 3 feet apart.
"He was staring out the window. Throughout the whole conversation, we never made eye contact," Lundgren said.
Erickson, whose father was a prison guard, also told Lundgren: "Do you know what they do with young guys in prison, especially priests?"
Lundgren said he prayed that Erickson's comments weren't true and didn't tell police about the confession until investigators contacted him.
Erickson, 31, hanged himself Dec. 19, 2004from a fire escape outside the Hurley parish.
About 15 members of the O'Connell and Ellison families attended the hearing, but Erickson's parents, Dennis and Mary Erickson of Minocqua, did not.
The relatives sat quietly, but as the judge issued his ruling, their eyes reddened and they pulled out tissues to dry tears.
O'Connell's parents — Tom Senior and Janet O'Connell — hugged. Janet, tears streaming down her cheeks, held out her hands with two thumbs up.
"God," she said. "This is good."
After meeting with the district attorney privately, the families gathered to speak.
Sally Ellison, the mother of James Ellison, said there will never be closure and detests the use of the term.
"There aren't any winners here — just tragedy the whole way around," she said.
She said the hearing and the ruling confirmed her suspicions.
"I don't think I had any doubts from back in December when he killed himself. I just knew," she said.
Clergy, she said, are not above suspicion or sin. "Only God is without sin. He is not God. He is a human being."
But O'Connell's widow, Jennie, said Erickson's guilt had "shattered her faith."
"The betrayal makes me sick, just sick," she said.
One of O'Connell's brothers, Tom O'Connell Jr., said former priests who were Erickson's superiors, along with the Diocese of Superior, still need to explain themselves.
"God is probably as sad today as we are," said Mike O'Connell, Dan's other brother.
from St. Paul Pioneer Press