Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Mysterious Death At 2222 4th St. N. (JOHNNY NORTHSIDE BLOG EXCLUSIVE DETAILS About The Miserable, Run-Down Property In Question)







Photos By John Hoff

For some reason, none of the media is willing to state the specific address of the run-down, decrepit dump of a property where a woman's body was found recently, click here for the story as told by WCCO.

I'm familiar with...

...the house in question. In fact, I once called 311 on the house for having no address number visible on the front exterior, and then a big green "2222" mysteriously appeared shortly after that on the board over the front door. Well, better than nothing, I guess.

Not A Gas Leak After All

Actually, Jeff and I drove past the crime scene while it was being processed. This was some time after the news crews had left, apparently, or before they all arrived. Even though both ends of the alley were blocked off, I didn't think much of it. I figured there was yet another gas leak from crackheads stealing copper pipes, because the fire department's procedure of blocking both ends of an alley looked similar to what I've seen before with these North Minneapolis gas leaks.

A house might explode. Shrug. Well, guess I can't cut through the alley.

The next day, I read about a woman's body being found in the garage, frozen. (So frozen one media outlet said she'd have to "thaw" before the autopsy took place) Some emails flew around the neighborhood. Michael Klick had heard gunshots on Sunday night during the snowstorm, and he couldn't help but think it might be connected to the woman's body being found in the garage.

"In Extreme Disrepair"

If the city's online property records are current--and you could break bones tripping over such a big "if"--the owner of the property is somebody named Mahmood Khan, whose address is listed at 2972 Old Highway 8 Roseville, MN 55113. So if the media are reporting the "owner" of the property came out to check the place, and found the body, then one assumes it was Mahmood Khan who found the body. (Unless the house has been sold to somebody else and the city's records just aren't up-to-date, which is common)

On September 25--the very day of the Hawthorne Annual Meeting--there was a meeting at City Hall regarding this property. (One supposes the meeting may have involved other properties, too) The meeting was held by the Nuisance Condition Process Review Panel. Board members, an assistant city attorney, and folks from inspections (including good ol' Wayne Murphy) were at the meeting, and so was Mahmood Khan, representing himself.

The board found as follows: 2222 4th St. N. is a two-family home in the Hawthorne neighborhood. The (garbled) story structure was built in 1900. Each unit has four rooms, including one bathroom and one bedroom. The building is 1,623 square feet. (...) (On all three floors)

The property is in extreme disrepair. There are 27 open housing orders on the property, most as a result of the Code Compliance Inspection conducted in April, 2008. The basement is moldy, there are holes in the walls, water damage shows on the ceilings throughout the house, kitchens and bathrooms have been trashed, the copper has been stripped and the roof is substandard.

The inspections department found the estimated cost to rehab the building is $129,843 to $234,372 based on the means square foot estimate. The assessed value of the property in 2007 was $147,000. The 2008 assessed value is $70,000. The Preservation and Design Team staff didn't find the property worth preserving.

The Hawthorne Area Community Council (the former name of HNC) and property owners within 350 feet of the property were mailed a request for a community impact statement. Three were received, all of which said the house had a negative impact on the neighborhood and should be demolished.

How We Got Into This Mess

Yong Yia Vue purchased the property on December 1, 2005. The property went into foreclosure and a sheriff's sale was conducted on June 20, 2006, with Deutsche Bank National Trust as Trustee for AMC Mortgage Services submitting the highest bid. The redemption period expired on December 20, 2007, and the property was put up for sale "as is."

On July 17, 2007, the property was condemned for being a boarded building and added to the City's Vacant Building Registration. The property has remained vacant and boarded since that time.

On April 1, 2008, a Code Compliance Inspection was ordered and paid for by Kyle White, the realtor attempting to sell the property. On June 25, 2008, the current owner, Mahmood Khan, purchased the property.

A Notice Of The Director's Order to Raze and Remove was mailed on July 23, 2008 to AMC Mortgage Services, Inc., Young Yia Vue, Kyle White, Vang Phay, Argent Mortgage Co. and Shapiro, Nordmeyer and Zielke.

On August 19, 2008, Mahmood Khan filed an appeal indicating "Code Compliance, will be brought up to code by licensed contractors."

On September 22, 2008 Mr. Khan sent the Department of Inspections an estimate to rehabilitate the property at a cost of $100,000 but was unable to meet with staff to discuss a restoration agreement detailng the proposed rehabilitation including timelines for completion.

Mr. Khan stated at the hearing that he plans to convert the building to a single family home with hope to provide housing to low-income families. Mr. Habib Moghul spoke on the owner's behalf and indicated he has seen the owner do good work in rehabbing other houses in the city.

(...) The city of Minneapolis found evidence, "including but not limited to neighborhood impact statements, clearly demonstrates that the values of neighborhood properties have diminished as a result of deterioration of the subject building" and also "rehabilitation is not justified when compared to the after rehab resale value of the building."

Recommendation to Raze upheld by the board.

Observations By "Boots On The Ground"

I was giving Hawthorne Housing Director Jeff Skrenes a ride to pick up his newly-repaired vehicle, and I took a detour to 2222 4th St. N., now clear of police and gawkers...though plenty of ribbons of crime scene tape were left hanging all over.

I advocate making that stuff out of corn starch polymer. My little Green Party plug, here, for a small public policy tweak to help the environment.

The "garage" in question is small. It appears to be one of the many old "carriage houses" which dot the back yards of North Minneapolis. The garage had been newly re-boarded with an official, gray board. A couch was near the garage, with a blue crime scene latex glove on it. It seemed as though the couch may have been hauled out of the garage. The cushions of the couch were missing. If the body was on the couch, then I figure these cushions were taken along with the body for some kind of analysis...though Jeff speculated the corpse may have been frozen to the cushions.

Of course...we don't really know if the deceased person was on that couch or not. But what's up with that big missing chunk of hand rest?

The house is a monstrosity. You can't really call it a duplex, despite an odd, engraved metal sign declaring "THIS IS A DUPLEX." Jeff had never seen anything like that sign, and wondered what was the point. The house seemed to be a small gray stucco thing which had some kind of horrible addition added, then pranced around shrieking, "Look at me! I'm a duplex!"

I note the findings of the City of Minneapolis went out of its way to avoid use of the word "duplex." Some kind of legality is a-simmering, here, or was at one time.

Paint Cans In The Mail Slot

Properly acting under the City of Minneapolis' publicized mandate for responsible citizens to "adopt" vacant and neglected properties, I wanted to see if any letters were stuck in the mail slot, so I could shove that stuff further into the house to help thwart mail fraud. That was when me and Jeff found the front porch was full of paint cans...waist high, it appeared, piled up just beyond the mail slot in the front porch. Who knew how many, but probably a lot. Jeff said the place was being used as a "dumping ground."

I noticed some of the vinyl siding had been pried upon...just enough for somebody to find out it was vinyl, not aluminum. Windows were missing on the second story, allowing blowing snow to enter the house.

This house is a monstrosity. I would like to think something like this incident would change the mind of the owner about trying to rehab it, but it's pretty hard to transform the hardwired slumlord mindset: nothing a coat of paint won't fix.

The proceedings against this house should move from back burner to front burner. But I think most residents are just wondering: how did this woman die? And if it was foul play, who did it? And who was she? Those are answers we're still waiting for...while she, um, thaws.

22 comments:

Ranty said...

You won't hear me crying over this one.

Johnny Northside said...

By which you mean the demolition of the house, of course.

When Ranty doesn't love a house, nobody does. SUMMON THE BACKHOES OF DOOM!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

The city is allowing this property owner to rehab this property. Councilmember Hofstede did request that the property come up with a management plan. We will see what this place turns into.

That's it, you gone and done it! said...

See this is why your the best. I didn't even know a third of this information. I was just upset that it is so close to home.

Johnny Northside said...

To Anonymos: allowing rehab? There is no evidence of any rehab at that property.

Anonymous said...

Here is the link to the meeting minutes.

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/2009-meetings/20090109/PSRS20081217agenda.asp

Anonymous said...

The victim of murder at 2222 N 4th street,Was a lovely kind hearted 15 year old girl.Beaten then shot infront of her friend among outhers.Then Left for weeks in that garage?The city/police wont even let the family view her clothing ect,or i.d. her we all know its little angelic,she left the house with no money/id/coat/cloths/nothing and has not been heard from since,her friend finally called to say she witinessed her beating shooting murder.Why no news for angelic why no vigil,why no community for this murdered child?And what of the man/monster/child molester/crack dealer/blood gang member. who murdered her,people know his i.d. mug shot why no news for angelic?

Johnny Northside said...

I'm approving this comment but at this point it is rumor, and unconfirmed. Who has more info?

Anonymous said...

I've heard rumors there is more to this story than what has been released so far. Nothing specific, just that.

One thing we did notice this summer was all the young girls who hung out with the gang members in this area. Almost every evening 15-20 girls would show up on the corner of 22nd and 6th. It was just so odd to see them arriving from almost every direction. Then the fighting and hooting and hollering would start. Every evening we went through the same thing. Of course 2207 was the place they all ran to when the cops were called.

We also noticed the young male dealers on the corners during the day were almost always accompanied by 2-3 girls. Quite often we could see they were holding the drugs for the guys. I'm not sure if male police officers won't search girls? Maybe that's why the gang bangers always seemed to have them around. Some of them were so young. Both sad and scary at the same time.

Anonymous said...

That comment is far from rumor anshalike was like my little sister she was only 15 and pregnet by this crack dealing pedofile loser that goes by the nick name of snoop neighbors may have seen him around because he sold crack in that area and from that garage the police wont give us any info so we had to get it on our own. he is a COWERD!!!

Anonymous said...

That comment is far from rumor anshalike was like my little sister she was only 15 and pregnet by this crack dealing pedofile loser that goes by the nick name of snoop neighbors may have seen him around because he sold crack in that area and from that garage the police wont give us any info so we had to get it on our own. he is a COWERD!!!

That's it, you gone and done it! said...

Well, I haven't heard anything. However, what I am questioning is that How can they allow this home to be repaired when the repair looks like it would cost more then the house. 2nd, I don't know if I would want a house that a murder happened in should still remain up and have the ability to become a rental again. 3rd, Why do people hide behind anonymity with out proof of what really happened, or a way to show on public record who, what when or suspects as far as the death on 2222 4th st.

Anonymous said...

The city/police/medical examiner have alot more info.shurly angelic has thawed by now.why the silence when this child killing monster is still on the streets,why not warn the public about this man/monster/murderer,they have his i.d. he was released from mpls jail shortly befor the killing.I suppose the north side of mpls is a place for a child killer with all the abandoned propertys.maby we better go vary throughly trough these empty houses ect asap for outher missing kids that might still be alive.why is this monsters face not all over the news?Why the silence?This guys still on the street.hear say people saw him on lowry and emerson av n in the last 2 days.

Johnny Northside said...

Sorry it took me a while to get these comments posted, I was out of town, en route, and away from internet.

In regard to all these rumors, etc...I will keep posting this stuff if people want to have the discussion but NONE of this is confirmed.

Also, I am trying to unravel these comments. Please, if you have info, break it down for those of us who don't have the story or even the rumor.

Who was the murdered girl or woman? Who is the person who allegedly murdered her? What were the circumstances? Where is this information coming from? How can I be sure of the truth of this info?

If anybody has a photo that's relevant...email it to me at hoffx106@umn.edu

Johnny Northside said...

Another note: I was given a "not for posting" comment from an anonymous person.

I'm only going to say this in response: let the police handle it, have faith, and do not attempt to do something about it yourself. If you want to have the discussion on this blog, I'll approve the comments and the discussion can take place.

I'm unclear on one thing: is the girl named "Angelic" or "Anshalike?"

Anonymous said...

the girls name is anshalike and she is a 15 year old girl and the reason i know the details is because i am a family member and the way i got my info is from a witnes that came foward wich was there when it happened.the police are not releasing any info rite now not even to the family. the only way we found out is the witnes called the family befor the police. in gegards to the dealers seen with the young girls in that area the suspect is more than likely one of them you see he is about age 24-26 with braids and go's by the name snoop and also the name freeky so if you see them than you are probly seeing him.

Anonymous said...

she was murdered because she refused to have an abortion as the man had another family.

Johnny Northside said...

Why me?

I received some comments after these comments were submitted and I approved the comments for posting, since my blog is not "open post" and all comments have to be approved...sometimes it takes me a while, and this week I was out of town. So it took a while.

OK...as I made clear, there was a comment submitted which said "not for publication." And I did not post that comment. I simply responded on my blog...saying to have faith in the authorities, not to do something on one's own.

Now I've been given more comments asking to please REMOVE previous comments already submitted. And I was given reasons for why I should remove the comments. The reasons have nothing to do with whether the comments are TRUE or whether the poster believed the comments to be true. Rather, I am being asked to remove the comments for other reasons.

Well...I don't do that. I don't remove comments. I especially don't remove comments which are chock full of substantive information (if any of it is true) which NO OTHER MEDIA OUTLET HAS RIGHT NOW with a story people really, really care about but we can't seem to get any info from authorities.

I hope the family members involved survive this horrible (alleged) situation as described in the comments, and they get through this terrible time.

But I am the media. And it's my job to promulgate substantive info, whether through content or photos or comments.

So the comments stay. And if there is a murdering bastard out there, I hope the police catch him and I hope the community cares deeply about what is happening in North Minneapolis. But people won't care if they can't get information and it's my self-appointed job to promulgate information.

Anonymous said...

The gangsters purposely have the girls hold and sell the drugs so the girls are the ones that go to jail. There are many women in jail for that reason. Young women are especially easily swayed by these bastards. I was wondering why we haven't heard anything but hopefully it is because they are building a case on the pig(s).

MCullen NE

Johnny Northside said...

This is now officially the most active comment thread EVER.

Look, we don't even know if the rumor-mongering is true or pure fiction. I, too, have faith the authorities are doing what they do for good reasons...but I think the neighborhood wants information very badly about what happened there.

Anonymous said...

The killers motivation for murder? To cover his predatory crime of criminal sexual conduct 1st degree,with a child.Fact,This little girl was 14 years old,At the time of conception.My guess he may be older than previously posted,distant hearsay he has a teen daughter?one news station said the recovered body was unrecognizable,Was the baby,the d.n.a.Evidence still present in the womb?Was the child disfigured. whatever the method this was premeditated child murder.11 days and no news yet.

Anonymous said...

THIS IS NOW OFFICIAL.

READING THE LAST PARAGRAPH I DON"T KNOW WHETHER TO LAUGH OR CRY AFTER READING THE ABOVE COMMENTS.

http://wcco.com/local/garage.pregnant.body.2.896584.html

Girl Found Dead In North Mpls. Garage Was PregnantMINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
The body of Annshalike Shanta Hamilton, of Minneapolis, was discovered by the owner of the garage on Dec. 15.
A 15-year-old girl who was found dead inside a Minneapolis garage earlier this month was pregnant, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner.

The medical examiner also ruled that the girl, who was found on the 2200 block of 4th Street North, had been murdered.

The body of Annshalike Shanta Hamilton, of Minneapolis, was discovered by the owner of the garage on Dec. 15. Police said they weren't sure how long her body had been there.

According to the medical examiner, Hamilton was killed by multiple blunt force injuries. The medical examiner ruled Hamilton's unborn daughter died as a result of her mother's death.

Minneapolis Police are seeking the public's help to find the suspect. Anyone with any leads is asked to call their tip line at 612-692-8477.