Crime News Breaking News

Man Suspected Of Killing, Dismembering Girlfriend And Scattering Her Remains Around City Sentenced After Plea Deal

Investigators say Joshua Dow shot Adelle Jensen to death, then methodically disposed of her body, which has never been found. 

By Gina Tron

A Minnesota man was sentenced this week for killing and dismembering his girlfriend, the mother of his child, four years ago and scattering her remains around Minneapolis.

Joshua Dow, 35, received 20 years on Wednesday as part of a plea deal he took for the death of Adelle Jensen, 25, who vanished in 2015, a Hennepin County Attorney's Office news release states. He pleaded guilty in November to second-degree murder.

Jensen, known for her love of animals and the outdoors vanished in 2015 and while it was assumed she was murdered, her body was never found, CBS Minnesota reported. She left behind a 2-year-old daughter.

Now, investigators believe they know what happened to the Minneapolis mother.

“Over the past four years, new evidence has helped make it clear as to what happened to Adelle Jensen,” the attorney’s office states. “On Nov. 18, 2015 around 5 a.m., Jensen was shot by Joshua Dow in his home in north Minneapolis. Dow took Jensen’s body to a warehouse where he concealed her.”

The office went on to say that Dow lied to police and to Jensen’s parents about seeing her alive. He ultimately dismembered her body and “disposed of the remains across the city.” At some point, he claimed she committed suicide, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis reports. 

During Dow’s sentencing, six members of Jensen’s family read victim impact statements. 

“For the past four years, Joshua Dow has created many victims. [Jensen's daughter, whose name has been withheld] has been without her mother, our girls have been without their sister, we have been without our beloved daughter.” 

Dow pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor charge of interference with a dead body and to first-degree sale of drugs in 2016, for which he has been serving time. He was due to be released on those charges early next year.

“I thought that with his destruction of Addie’s body that there was no way that they could’ve proceeded,”  Jensen’s dad told reporters after Wednesday’s sentencing “And I am grateful, eternally grateful, that the homicide department kept up with the efforts and gathered enough evidence to make this happen.”