Evidence Said Found in Kidnapping Suspect’s Car

A knife and blood matching missing college student Dru Sjodin’s blood type were found in the car belonging to the man accused of kidnapping her, a source told Associated Press on Monday.

Preliminary analysis of the blood matches DNA taken from Sjodin’s toothbrush, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported on its Web site late Monday, citing two sources close to the investigation.

The AP source, a person close to the investigation, was the first to reveal the knife’s discovery in the car’s trunk. The source also confirmed earlier reports about the blood and a knife sheath found near Sjodin’s car in the parking lot of the Grand Forks shopping mall where she disappeared.

That sheath could only belong to a particular knife sold exclusively as a set in a home improvement store in Grand Forks, one source told the Star Tribune.

Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes, Minn., was last heard talking to her boyfriend on a cellphone Nov. 22 after the University of North Dakota student left her job at a Victoria’s Secret.

Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 50, has been charged with kidnapping Sjodin. Evidence in the case, which was sealed by a judge after Rodriguez’s arrest, should be released today, the source said.

Rodriguez’s four-door 2002 Mercury Sable was impounded by authorities before his Dec. 1 arrest in Crookston, Minn.

David Dusek, Rodriguez’s public defender, has said his client stated he had nothing to do with Sjodin’s disappearance.

Bail has been set at $5 million, but Rodriguez has chosen to stay in jail because of fears for his safety.