For only the third time in 25 years, the Rock County Sheriff’s Office will have a new investigator beginning July 1.
Investigator Sgt. Jeff Wieneke will retire at the end of the month, having served 20 years in the position.
Current deputy Chad Kempema will take his place as investigator and will be promoted to sergeant.
Kempema has been in law enforcement for 22 years and with Rock County since 2016.
The promotion leaves the sheriff’s department seeking a deputy replacement.
“Currently we have not received any applications after one month of posting,” said Sheriff Evan Verbrugge. “As of today, there are 162 openings in the state of Minnesota for a law enforcement position.”
Career has been rewarding
Soon-to-be-retired Wieneke advised anyone interested in law enforcement to explore the career first, much the same way he did before he graduated from Luverne High School in 1987.
He completed an exploratory class which included riding with local peace officers and assisting the department during the summer months.
His original plans to join the military after high school changed as he chose instead to work in Luverne for a year, saving money to attend college.
He graduated from Alexandria Vocational-Technical College in 1990 with a two-year degree in law enforcement.
Wieneke first accepted a position as part-time officer with the Luverne Police Department before moving to a full-time deputy position with the sheriff’s office in January 1991.
“The job market was a little different back then,” Wieneke recalled. “You’d go and apply and there would be a lot of people there. It’s not like that anymore.”
While national perceptions of law enforcement have changed in the wake of Minneapolis police incidents, Wieneke said his experience in Rock County has been positive.
“Around here I have never felt disrespect,” Wieneke said. “People have gone out of their way to say how much they appreciate us.”
Wieneke started as investigator in 2003
A 1998 merger between the Rock County sheriff’s department and the Luverne police department marked the creation of the first investigator position within the new sheriff’s department.
Clyde Menning served as the first investigator, retiring in 2003.
Months later, Wieneke filled the position. “It was kind of ‘Here it is, have at it,’” Wieneke recalled. “I think it was originally intended as a five-year position.”
Wieneke said a large share of his investigator knowledge came through Carrie Nelson’s murder at the Blue Mounds State Park in 2001, two years before he became the investigator.
Two shelves in Wieneke’s current office hold all the written reports Paul Soppeland with the Minnesota Bureau of Investigation gave to Wieneke to catch up to where the investigation stood.
“I had plenty of reading to do when I wasn’t doing other stuff,” Wieneke recalled. “It was pretty obvious there weren’t any strong suspects.”
Wieneke balanced his regular investigation of burglaries, child protection, and especially in the early 2000s, narcotics cases with reading the Nelson case.
“I got pulled into a lot of types of cases,” he said. “They’re never the same every day, that’s for sure.”
For the first four years of Wieneke’s 20-year investigator career, he sought answers to the Nelson case.
Nelson case solved under Wieneke’s watch
An advancement in DNA testing in 2007 ultimately led to Nelson’s murderer, Randy Swaney, who was later convicted in 2008. He’s still serving a life sentence.
Because Swaney, who was already in custody for another crime, wouldn’t talk with investigators, Wieneke and others had to build the case by other means.
“I learned a lot because we interviewed a lot of people,” Wieneke said. “I also learned the collection of evidence and how to log everything — to do everything the proper way. It was unfortunate to learn in that type of situation, but I learned from a better investigator (Soppeland).”
Wieneke now frequently uses other advances in technology such as cell phone records, including text messages and social media postings, to solve cases and provide closure for victims.
“I’m not saying I am a computer person but you have to have some computer skills,” he said. “You will learn them, that’s for sure.”
One local murder case remains open
However, one murder case is still open in Rock County, and Wieneke will retire before the 1984 death of Kelly Robinson is solved.
Robinson’s body was found in a gravel pit northeast of Luverne.
“There’s just no active leads in that case,” he said. “I’ve spoken to the family and I would like to give them closure.”
The Robinson and other cases waiting lab results remain open as Wieneke retires and will now be handled by Kempema.
“I will be reaching out to him in the next couple of months to see what the results are,” Wieneke said.
Wieneke and his wife, Patti, who works at Minnwest Bank, plan to continue to reside in Luverne after his retirement.
“It is a rewarding career,” he said. “Overall, 32 1/2 years goes by really fast, and I hope to survive several more so I can enjoy retirement.”
The couple has two grown daughters, Sierra and Olivia, both students at the University of Minnesota Mankato. His parents, Alvin and Connie Wieneke, also live in Luverne.