The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

July 9, 2008

Loose wire leads to possible meth lab

Three arrested after search southeast of Mapleton

By Dan Nienaber

MINNESOTA LAKE — A property owner and electrician working at a grain storage facility between Mapleton and Minnesota Lake found a stray wire that later led drug investigators to what they suspect was a methamphetamine lab.

Three people were arrested Friday after members of the Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force executed a search warrant at the rural residence southeast of Mapleton. Christopher Michael Carey, 33; Jeana Sue Tate-Rorvig, 28; and Staci Jean Klein, 18, appeared in court Monday. Carey and Tate-Rorvig are facing felony first-degree drug manufacturing charges and Klein has been charged with fifth-degree drug possession, also a felony.

Michael Ward, who said he and Glenn Taylor own the facility, was at the site with electrician Bill Fitzloff on July 3, the criminal complaint said. Fitzloff was looking for shut-off switch when he discovered power wire running from a terminal box to Carey’s house next door.

When a Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Deputy contacted the Steele-Waseca Electric Co-op, the provider in the area, he learned that Carey’s electricity had been shut off since September 2006, and that Carey still owed the co-op $700. When a search warrant was executed at the property Friday, deputies found what they suspected was a methamphetamine lab in Carey’s house, the criminal complaints said.

Processed methamphetamine also was found in the residence, which Carey shares with his girlfriend, Tate-Rorvig, the complaints said.

Klein and another man also were at the residence and methamphetamine was allegedly found in Klein’s purse. The other man said he was related to Carey, but he didn’t know there was methamphetamine or a Meth lab on the property. He had not been charged with a crime as of Wednesday.

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