Though I've lived in North Minneapolis for a good while, now, I'd never heard of a street called "Barnes Place." Recently, there was a fire at 1426 Barnes Pl. and a man died there.
(Interestingly, a Star Tribune story described the fire as being on the "1400 block of Barnes Place," but then the photo accompanying the story clearly identified it as "1426 Barnes Place." I guess the quaint "dead tree media" artifice of identifying crime and tragedy scenes by block number is starting to show some cracks at the Star Tribune)
Trying to dig up information about the property and who might have died there, I looked at the city's property records...
The house at 1426 Barnes Pl. is owned by Alice Cerventes, but appears to be controlled by a "special needs" trust. It's been on the "vacant and boarded" list since 3/23/2010.
Despite the fact it's been vacant since March of 2010, as recently as August 3 of this year somebody was using the property as their official address. I found this out by searching the address and seeing my own jail roster posting pop up.
(I must say, lately I've been having great luck with my jail roster "data preservation" when I search a name or address on Google. It's like the roster has reached a kind of "critical mass" and nuggets within the massive bolus of data have achieved a high degree of relevance)
Well, here's what turned up:
2011020487 MARQUEZ-GUEVARA, SERGIO.NMN 6/6/1965 1426 BARNES PLACE, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55411 8/3/2011.10:31
It's old data, so I'm not sure what he was charged with.
An individual with the same name turns up on the Dakota County jail website which has mug shots. (So informative! We should get that in Hennepin County) "Sergio Marquez Guevara" was charged with driving after revocation on September 30 of this year. However, maddeningly, the space for "date of birth" has been left blank. Thus, the key piece of info which could link one Sergio Marquez Guevara to the other can't be located.
However, the mugshot looks like somebody who may have been born in 1965. Furthermore, note the hair and the odd mark on the face. Sure looks like somebody who might sleep in a vacant house. Also, the former owner of the house had a Hispanic surname. So does this guy. It may be he was squatting at the house but had a semi-valid claim for being there. Like it was his sister's old place.
That is to say...
IF this was the guy killed at the house. That's totally unconfirmed.
It would be something, though, if this mystery of identity could be solved all the way from a mud, straw and goat poo fortress in Afghanistan, with nothing more than information left laying around the internet.
Take that, Star Tribune, and your not-quite-satisfying "block number journalism."
