Left: Alexis Elling. Right: Bradley Allen Weyaus Jr. (Mille Lacs County Jail).
A Minnesota woman will not serve additional jail time for helping her boyfriend move a dismembered murder victim in a tote bag, authorities say.
Alexis Marion Elling, aged 24, confessed to being an accessory after the fact in relation to the 2023 murder of Rodney Pendegayosh Jr., according to court documents. Elling spent close to a year imprisoned for aiding her boyfriend, 23-year-old Bradley Allen Weyaus Jr., in relocating Pendegayosh’s body from a residence in Isle, approximately 100 miles north of Minneapolis. She also assisted in discarding a shotgun case.
Elling admitted to being aware that her boyfriend had killed Pendegayosh and that the body was inside the tote bag they were transporting. She tracked the bag over two days, according to prosecutors. Authorities eventually found Pendegayosh’s body by a snowy roadside. In accordance with a plea deal, a judge suspended the 57-month sentence, provided that Elling complies with her probation terms, which prohibit the use of alcohol or drugs. She received credit for the 324 days she had already spent in jail.
Last month, Weyaus was sentenced to 306 months in prison, equating to 25 years and six months, for Pendegayosh’s death, as outlined in court records. Weyaus admitted to second-degree murder in May.
In a sentencing memorandum, Weyaus’ attorney blamed his behavior in part on his Native American heritage.
“Bradley Allen Weyaus, Jr., was born into circumstances beyond his control. His life has been shaped by historical and generational trauma, systematic neglect, and the enduring impacts of colonization and forced displacement suffered by Native American communities, including his own,” his attorney stated.
A psychiatrist noted like many American Indians, he suffered from depression, PTSD and trauma-related distress.
Throughout his life, Weyaus faced instability and witnessed the abuse of his mother by his stepfather, according to court documents. At the age of 10, he saw his grandmother stab his mother, and he later lived in foster care environments where he also experienced abuse, the documents indicated. Consequently, he turned to substance abuse, his legal team explained.
“Within Bradley Weyaus are remnants of traumas too intense to heal in just one generation,” his lawyer remarked. “This is the story of Bradley Weyaus, a young Native American man whose childhood and adolescence were plagued by relentless abuse, personal trauma, and generational trauma, leading him to fall prey to meth addiction and resort to drug dealing to sustain his habit and alleviate his pain.”
Authorities have said that the defendants believed that the 25-year-old Pendegayosh dealt Elling’s brother a fatal mixture of fentanyl and meth. Officials said that the couple’s crime was anything but typical.
“This whole thing is truly bizarre,” Mille Lacs County Sheriff Kyle Burton in a news conference at the time authorities brought charges. “This body was moved multiple places for a period of possibly up to a week before the discovery was made.”
A public works maintenance crew that was collecting garbage discovered Pendegayosh’s remains stuffed into a tote bag bound by bungee cords and tape along a snowy highway in March 2023.
“They see what they believe to be a severed human foot,” the sheriff said. They closed the tote and called the police.
An officer on the way to the scene spotted a white Saturn believed to be driven by Weyaus. Weyaus fled, and for a time, eluded capture. The officer eventually found the vehicle empty but stuck in a driveway. The homeowners pointed out the suspect hiding in a camper trailer on the property. The arrest ensued. In Weyaus’ duffel bag, authorities discovered a hacksaw, hammer, and black tape similar to the tape found on the tote.
Other evidence pointed toward the couple. There was a spent shotgun shell in the suspect vehicle, although apparently no gun. Investigators found a bloody carpet, gloves, and a hardware store receipt in the dumpster at the apartment where the suspect lived — as well as Pendegayosh’s ID and credit card.
The sheriff said surveillance video shows the suspects carrying the tote bag out of the apartment and loading it into a black Chevrolet Impala a few days before police discovered the body.
