Remains of Troy Klug (26) found five years after he was killed

[puzzld]

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2009/05/06/news/top/doc4a011a595cece327600793.txt
Officials 'certain' Troy Klug's body found
Admitted killer Teigen led investigators to grave
By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal staff | Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Almost five years after he went missing, Troy Klug is finally coming home.

South Dakota state investigators searching in the Sheep Mountain area of eastern Montana on Tuesday afternoon found what they believe are the skeletal remains of Klug, who went missing in July 2004. Tory Teigen, who was convicted in 2005 of Klug’s kidnapping and pleaded guilty last month to his murder, led investigators to the vicinity of the grave.

“We’re quite certain that Troy has been found,” Assistant Attorney General Rod Oswald said Tuesday. “It brings closure to a five-year investigation of this horrific crime.”

Klug, then 26, disappeared after going to the Rapid City home of Cynthia Kindall to get methamphetamine. He was kidnapped, bound with duct-tape and held captive in a car trunk, then in a large tool box, apparently over an unpaid drug debt. Prosecutors have long believed that Klug was killed, then buried in southeastern Montana.

Search teams had previously been over the general area where the remains were found at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Oswald said Teigen was able to narrow the search, though, and investigators with the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation eventually spotted a depression in the ground that turned out to be Klug’s grave. Oswald described the site as being in “remote, rugged, treacherous country.”

Oswald said investigators uncovered boxer shorts, a belt, shoes and a wallet consistent with descriptions of Klug’s possessions and what he was last seen wearing. They also found duct tape and barn lye, an alkaline cleaner.

For Joyce Klug, Troy’s mother, Tuesday was a long day. She knew investigators were searching in Montana, and the news that her son’s remains had finally been found brought a flood of emotion.

“We’ve been waiting five years for this, and it’s a real relief,” she said Tuesday evening. “But it still just doesn’t seem real.”

Joyce Klug said she plans to hold a memorial service for her son at a later date.

Employees of the South Dakota state forensic lab were still at the grave site, which is about 90 miles from Belle Fourche, Tuesday evening. It’s being treated as a crime scene, Oswald said, and it will be a couple of days before the remains can be positively identified.

Oswald credited the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, Butte County Sheriff’s Office, Butte County State’s Attorney’s Office, Harding County Sheriff’s Office, Carter County (Montana) Sheriff’s Office and Montana state brand inspector for their assistance to the Attorney General’s Office. He also expressed appreciation for K.T. Riwin of Cody, Wyo., who provided cadaver dogs used in the search.

Teigen will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. Kindall pleaded guilty but mentally ill to kidnapping and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Jamee Corean was convicted of kidnapping following a jury trial last summer and was sentenced to life in prison. She is appealing her conviction. Corean’s former boyfriend, James Kusick, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder and perjury and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com

[puzzld]

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_ffd1fc80-b06a-11df-bf0c-001cc4c03286.html

An attorney for a woman serving life in prison for her role in a 2004 murder asked the South Dakota Supreme Court for a new trial Wednesday, saying jurors should hear from the man who confessed to the killing.

Jamee Corean, 31, was convicted of aiding and abetting aggravated kidnapping and being an accessory to murder in the death of Troy Klug of Rapid City. Prosecutors say she knew Klug was being held, bound and gagged, inside a large toolbox in a garage at the home she shared with her boyfriend but didn't call police.

Corean's attorney, David Claggett, told justices during a hearing in Pierre that jurors should hear from Tory Teigen, who eventually confessed to killing Klug. Claggett also said jurors should have been told that several witnesses testifying against Corean were accomplices in the case. Only two of the witnesses were identified as such.

"Had that been properly instructed, we don't believe there would have been a conviction," Claggett argued.

Klug, 26, disappeared on July 12, 2004, after going to a Rapid City home to get methamphetamine, which witnesses said he wanted to sell to pay off a debt. Teigen was convicted of Klug's kidnapping in 2005. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to murdering Klug, and he then led authorities to where he buried Klug's body in southeastern Montana.

Circuit Judge John Bastian denied Corean's request for a new trial earlier this year, saying it was unlikely Teigen's testimony would lead to her acquittal. The denial was appealed to the Supreme Court, which heard arguments Wednesday and will later issue a written ruling.

Frank Geaghan, an assistant attorney general, said Wednesday that another witness testified that Corean told her a man was being held in the garage but refused to call authorities. Geaghan said Corean's boyfriend, James Kusick, testified that he told her "at least a couple of times" that the victim was outside in the garage.

He said Corean is an accomplice even if she only played a minor role.

"The defendant knew that Troy Klug was bound and gagged and in a tool box at her residence," Geaghan said.

Teigen did not testify in Corean's 2008 trial, which came before he confessed to the killing. But in a hearing last year, he said as far as he knew, Corean did not know Klug had been placed in her garage.

Prosecutors have said that an expert determined Klug died July 14 at the earliest, though Teigen said Klug was dead when he checked the toolbox at 3 p.m. on July 13. The timing disparity drew some questions from the justices Wednesday, as Claggett argued that even if prosecutors could prove Corean knew Klug was being held in her garage, she could not be convicted if Klug was dead before she found out he was in the garage.

Claggett said that according to Teigen, a lot of what Kusick said at Corean's trial about her knowledge of what was going on was not true.

"That's testimony that this jury should have heard, that this jury can hear," he said.

Claggett also argued that jailhouse letters that Teigen sent to others involved in the case should not have been admitted in Corean's trial.