Mindy Morgenstern, a college student from North Dakota, always felt secure within her small college community, unaware that a dangerous individual was nearby.

The 22-year-old senior was tragically discovered with her throat slashed in her off-campus apartment in Valley City on September 13, 2006. Two close friends, who had hoped to persuade her to join them for a night out, stumbled upon the horrific scene.

“I knocked, and then just turned the door handle, and it opened. I took a few steps in and noticed something on the floor,” her friend Toni Baumann recounted on Oxygen’s Dateline: Secrets Uncovered. “I looked down, realized it was Mindy, and saw her eyes. That’s when I knew something terrible had occurred.”

The friends immediately called 911 and anxiously waited outside for the police, marking a night they would never forget.

“Even if I lose my mind,” friend Danielle Holmstrom said, “I’ll never forget that day.”

It was part of the reason that Morgenstern, committed to maintaining her health, had moved into an apartment by herself, yet she had always told her parents that she felt safe living alone.

As her dad remembered, “She said there’s a couple of police officers that live around the building.” 

Clues Found at Mindy Morgenstern’s Crime Scene

Tragically, it wasn’t enough to keep Morgenstern safe and she was killed on Sept. 13, 2006.

Valley City Police Sgt. Dave Swenson was among the first to arrive at the scene and remembered a “very strong” odor of Pine Sol, suggesting the killer had tried to clean up to hide their identity.

“I saw her laying on her back. There was a knife that was still in her neck,” Swenson remembered. “The handle was broke off. There was another knife right next to her that was broke.” 

It looked as though Morgenstern—who also had a belt wrapped about her neck—had tried to fend off her attacker in her final moments and her hands were wrapped in plastic to try to secure any DNA that may have been captured under her fingernails. 

Investigators learned that Morgenstern was last been seen on campus earlier that day around 12:20 p.m. Swensen theorized that she made it home around 12:30 p.m., but minutes later, at 12:47 p.m. she missed a phone call and a witness reported smelling the Pine Sol around 1 p.m. 

“Things were lining up,” Swenson said. “What didn’t line up was why or who could have done it.” 

Police and agents from North Dakota’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation began by taking a look at those closest to Morgenstern, including her boyfriend, an ex—who some described as the love of her life—and even her ex’s dad, who’d maintained an unusual level of closeness with Morgenstern after the breakup. But, all were ultimately ruled out as possible suspects.

DNA at Crime Scene is Linked to Another Attack

Then, investigators got a break after entering the DNA profile they’d acquired from under Morgenstern’s fingernails into a federal criminal database. The DNA matched to evidence collected from an unsolved rape in the Fargo area.

The Fargo victim—who agreed to speak with Dateline’s Keith Morrison under the condition of anonymity—had been at bar with friends when she got up to go to the bathroom. Then, she blacked out and woke up on a mattress in an unfamiliar apartment as a stranger was raping her.

“I was on my stomach, he was on top of me. He had his arm in my mouth so I couldn’t scream,” the woman, who thought she was going to die, recounted through tears. “I just remember fighting and struggling him. He’s twice my size.” 

“It’s terrifying,” she said. “I thought that was the end of it.” 

The next thing she remembered, she was in the hallway with her attacker, barefoot and without her purse. She managed to get away and run for help at another apartment.

She recalled her attacker being an African American male, over 6 feet tall and more than 200 pounds, but police were unable to track the man down. 

Police Identify Suspect in Mindy Morgenstern’s Death

Using that information, investigators in Morgenstern’s case realized there was a man fitting that description living in her apartment complex. Moe Gibbs was a married correctional officer for Barnes County—one of the very same men that Morgenstern believed made her feel so safe in the building.

Gibbs was well known in the law enforcement community and even played softball with Swenson, who was “shocked” by the development.

“Just the Sunday before,” Swenson said, “we were playing in a state softball tournament in Fargo.”

Gibbs had given a witness statement and his DNA early in the investigation and it matched to the evidence at the crime scene.

During an interview, Gibbs denied having anything to do with Morgenstern’s murder or the rape in Fargo, but he was placed under arrest.

“I was shocked,” Morgenstern’s sister Rebecca Young recalled. “Just that some random person could do what he did.”

After the arrest, five women came forward claiming that Gibbs—whose legal name was Glen Dale Morgan Jr.— had sexually assaulted them at the correctional center where he once worked and more charges were filed against him.

Morgenstern’s mother chose to forgive her daughter’s killer at his sentencing hearing, telling him, “Mr. Gibbs, I forgive you publicly here, and I also want you to know that I won’t forget what you did to Mindy.”

He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.