A “God-incidence” that helped investigators solve a 2015 murder is once again in the headlines, thanks to a new broadcast special by ABC News of their 2020 investigation series titled 20/20: Divine Intervention.
The clue that finally cracked the case turned out to be a Bible that had been stolen from a murdered farmer’s home.
The Bible’s discovery led investigators to solve the case and arrest two suspects.
“You’re always looking for that one nugget, that one thing that comes in that allows you to solve the case,” Jim Olson, a retired sheriff with the Carver County Sheriff’s Office who worked on the investigation, told 20/20.
Earl Olander, 90, was found dead inside his farmhouse in Carver County Minnesota in April 2015. His hands and feet were bound by duct tape.
According to ABC News, Olander lived a modest life but was worth millions. He had inherited some of the money and his bank account had also grown from farming his land over the years.
After weeks of frustrating leads, police detectives received a telephone call about a month after the murder that changed everything.
Barry Kyles from St. Paul told the investigators he found a Bible inside a recently-vacated apartment he was cleaning. Kyles said the Bible had two savings bonds inside it with Olander’s name on it.
After Kyle did an internet search of Olander’s name, he found out that the man was a homicide victim.
Olson told 20/20 that the Norwegian Bible was over 100 years old and belonged to Olander’s family.
The detectives then turned their attention to Edson Benitez, 30, the man who had lived in the apartment. This led to his confession that the Bible was stolen and he had helped his friend Reinol Vergara, 36, rob Olander. Vergara had been suspected in an earlier unsolved burglary of the house of one of Olander’s neighbors. He had also worked for some of the farmer’s neighbors.
Benitez told police Vergara entered Olander’s home while he waited in the car. When he entered the home, he said he saw a man with his head covered with a blanket and his hands and feet tied up with duct tape. He also said he saw Vergara strike the man with his gun.
Benitez told investigators that the man was still moving when he and Vergara left the house with the items they took, according to ABC News. One of those items was Olander’s Bible.
Olson said there was a lot of finger-pointing between the two suspects. Police said the men’s cell phone records and their shoe prints found at the murder scene implicated the two, showing they were at the house at the time of the robbery and murder.
Charged with four counts of murder, Vergara and Benitez pleaded guilty to one of the charges. In 2016, they were both sentenced to 37 years in prison.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were also involved in the case because they suspected the two men of being illegal immigrants, KMSP-TV reported at the time.
And the prosecutor said the two men will likely be deported once they finish their prison sentences, CBS News reported at the time of their sentencing in May of 2016.
Meanwhile, the fact that the case was only solved due to the discovery of Olander’s stolen Bible has some pointing to divine intervention.
“To me, there are no coincidences. There are only ‘God-incidences,'” Bill Boecker, his longtime neighbor, told 20/20.
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