According to court papers, the former mayor of a small town in South Dakota who is accused of killing three men got angry when his wife told him that a neighbor had sexually assaulted her. This happened not long before the triple shooting last week.
Centerville is a small town of less than 1,000 people located 40 miles south of Sioux Falls. On May 27, the men were killed there.
An affidavit made by a special agent with the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation says that Jay Ostrem’s wife told him right before they died that on May 23, a neighbor she had been drinking with forced kissed her and exposed himself.
It says that Ostrem left “raging out of the house” because of the charge.
It says that Ostrem’s wife claimed that her husband had said anything before he left and that she had no idea where he was going or if he was armed.
A police report says Zach Frankus called 911 to say that his brother had been killed by being shot “with a shotgun.” The police report says he told the dispatcher that “someone from across the street” shot his brother.
As the document says, Frankus told the dispatcher that he had also been shot and then stopped talking to them.
When the police went into the house, they found three guys who looked like they had been shot dead. They were named in the affidavit as Paul Frankus, 26, his brother Zach Frankus, 21, and a third guy, Timothy Richmond, 35. It wasn’t clear what Richmond had to do with the Frankus boys.
The statement says Ostrem’s wife told him that Paul Frankus hit her.
Ostrem, who is 64 years old, was caught walking on the street where he lived soon after an attack. An AR-style rifle was lying next to him, and the statement says he had a gun in his pocket. It says that an officer saw Ostrem leave the garage of the house where the three men were shot.
Three counts of first-degree murder put Ostrem in jail on Monday, with a $1 million cash bond. This was confirmed by jail records and a statement from Attorney General Marty Jackley.
On Monday, a spokesman for Jackley’s office said the review is still going on and would not say anything else.
On Monday night, it wasn’t clear right away if Ostrem had hired a lawyer. No one could get Ostrem’s wife to say anything.
Ostrem became mayor of Centerville in May 2009, and city records show that the City Council accepted his retirement in November 2011.
It wasn’t clear from those papers why Ostrem quit.
The former police head of the city sued Centerville and Ostrem in federal court in July 2010.
The claim said that Ostrem also said things about women that were rude and hurtful.
The lawsuit said he said things about periods being a “man’s job” and women not being able to be as effective as men.
Court records show that mediation took place in July 2012, and the case was then thrown out. The Sioux Falls Argus Leader said that the two cases were over.
