Press release - News

November 9, 2022

In Murder of Minnesota Farmer, Is It Divine Intervention That Leads Police to the Killers?

A New ‘20/20’ Features Exclusive Interviews With Longtime Friends and Neighbors of Victim Earl Olander and Key Investigators Who Cracked the Case

 

The Two-Hour Program Also Includes Police Interrogation Tapes and Audio of Jailhouse Confrontation Between Victim’s Friend and One of the Killers

 

‘20/20’ Airs on Friday, Nov. 11 (9:01-11:00 p.m. EST), on ABC, Next Day on Hulu

ABC News/AndyAwes*

Life in East Union, Minnesota, was idyllic for 90-year-old Earl Olander, a modest farmer who attended church every Sunday in the rural community where he had lived since birth. When authorities found Olander murdered — his body tied up and brutally beaten, his house ransacked — shockwaves reverberated throughout the tight-knit town he called home. Neighbors were left wondering why anyone would want to kill Earl Olander. In a new “20/20,” ABC News correspondent John Quiñones reports on the twists and turns in the case, from the revelation that Olander was a secret millionaire to the mysterious clue found inside his Bible that led authorities to the killers.

 

The two-hour program features exclusive interviews with longtime friends and neighbors of the victim, including Bill Boecker and Maria Boecker, who had an emotional jailhouse confrontation with one of the killers; Olander’s family members, including his cousin Paul Lundquist; key investigators, including lead detective on the case Chris Wagner and former Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson; and forensic scientists from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Steve Swenson and Katherine Igowsky, whose expert analysis helped authorities lock away the killers. “20/20 airs on Friday, Nov. 11 (9:01-11:00 p.m. EST), on ABC, next day on Hulu.

 

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ABC News Media Relations
Sarah Jautz
sarah.jautz@abc.com

 

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