Posted: 9/14/04
The investigation into vandalism at St. John Lutheran Church continued this week.
The Isanti County Sheriffís Office has dedicated three officers to the case.
The church, located in Weber, which is about 10 miles southwest of North Branch, was vandalized sometime between 1 p.m. Sept. 5 and 8 a.m. Sept. 6.
Someone, possibly a group of people, broke into the church through the pastorís study and ransacked most of the preschool area, community room, choir loft and sanctuary.
Damages were estimated at about $100,000, including cost to clean or replace the churchís organ which was squirted with chocolate sauce and to remove spray painted messages from the walls.
Isanti County Sheriff Mike Ammend said the investigators do not believe a satanic cult is to blame for the event. He also said he does not believe the incident was gang related.
Ammend said he and investigators believed the chaos was the result of bored juveniles. Nothing was stolen from the church during the break-in, Ammend said.
Several pieces of evidence are being evaluated, including fingerprints and handwriting samples taken from the church.
Several people have been questioned by the sheriffís investigators, but the sheriffís office did not name any suspects as of Tuesday morning.
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