10 years ago (2009)
•The man found guilty last summer of murdering Luverne’s Carrie Nelson is appealing his conviction.
Randy Swaney, now 38, is serving a life sentence in prison for the May 20, 2001, murder of 20-year-old Nelson in the Blue Mounds State Park.
In August last year, a jury found Swaney guilty of all seven murder charges, and he was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Now Swaney is asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to overturn his conviction.
During his sentence hearing on Aug. 15, 2008, he told Nelson’s family that “her killer is still out there.”
He has maintained he is innocent and deserves a new trial.
The state’s highest court heard arguments Thursday, Nov. 5, in Swaney’s appeal.
25 years ago (1994)
•Maurice Fitzer returned home from nearly a weeklong stay in the Luverne Community Hospital Monday after suffering serious injuries from an anhydrous ammonia accident last week.
On Tuesday, Nov. 8, anhydrous ammonia sprayed directly on Fitzer’s face and arm. He had been working in a field that his son, Geff Fitzer, farms southwest of Luverne.
Anhydrous ammonia in the tank is 200 degrees below zero. Normally it is applied directly into the soil, but if it accidentally mixes directly with air it vaporizes into a deadly gas.
The chemical spill on Fitzer’s arm caused what doctors say will be a permanent pink scar. The more serious injuries, however, were to his throat and lungs, caused by inhalation of the vapor. “Fortunately it didn’t go way down into my lungs … I didn’t get a full whiff,” Fitzer said. “If I had gotten a full whiff, you wouldn’t be talking to me today.”
Ambulance personnel told him his eyeglasses saved him from possibly going blind.
Fitzer, Luverne, was applying anhydrous ammonia when the hitch pin connecting the tank to the application rig disconnected. Fitzer said this also caused the hose from the rig to the tank to disconnect, but the safety valve on that hose prevented a leak at that point.
When the men attempted to reconnect it, however, back pressure in the hose released a spurt of anhydrous ammonia causing the injuries.
50 years ago (1969)
•The United Methodist Church, located at the intersection of Main and Freeman, will have its first church school and worship service in the new structure Sunday, Nov. 16, according to the Rev. Donald F. Lyon, pastor of the congregation.
The congregation and the public are invited. The Sunday schedule in the new structure is: Church school is at 9 a.m.; Organ interlude from 10-10:15 a.m.; and worship service from 10:15-11:15.
The sanctuary of the new church will seat more than 450 persons in 38 eighteen-foot cushioned pews. The balcony will accommodate approxi-mately 100 and the overflow space could seat another 100. Six hundred and fifty can easily be accommo-dated at one time.
The Fellowship Hall, located under the main sanctuary, will seat 400 at tables at one time. The education part of the new structure is located on three floors with 15 classrooms.
A chapel is also located in the new church and can seat 50 persons. A Fireside Room is also available for group meetings. A nursery, with attendants, is also available where babies can be in cribs, play, or be with their mother, who can both see and hear the entire service.
75 years ago (1944)
•Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Watts and two daughters miraculously escaped in-jury Saturday night when the steering apparatus of their car broke, and the machine went out of control and upset in a water filled ditch, north of the Albert Christensen farm near Luverne.
When asked by the Star-Herald reporter if they escaped without getting wet, Peggy, one of the two girls answered with the question, “Are you kidding?”
Damage to the car, in addition to that caused by the water, included some broken glass, and some body dents.
100 years ago (1919)
•With a record of having picked 130 bushels of corn within a nine-hour day, with an average of 117 bushels a day for fifteen days, Ben Huston, of this city, is entitled to championship honors among Rock county corn pickers, friends contend.
Mr. Huston “opened the season” in Geo. Becker’s cornfield in Magnolia township, starting on the afternoon of October 14th, when he picked 47 bushels. The next two days he gathered 117 bushels a day, and on the Saturday following increased his speed to 122 bushels. Four days later, on the 22nd, he picked the 130 bushels that made his biggest day’s work this season.
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