Copyright Star Tribune
A man killed a coworker inside an industrial shop west of the Twin Cities with blows to her head with a sledgehammer, then he confessed to the crime, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday. David Bruce DeLong, 40, of Watkins, Minn., was charged in District Court with second-degree murder for the attack Monday in Cokato that killed 20-year-old Amber Mary Czech, of Hutchinson, Minn., at Advanced Process Technologies, which makes equipment used in food processing. DeLong was arrested and remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail ahead of a court appearance on Nov. 24. Court records do not list an attorney for him. Around 6 a.m., a caller to 911 said Czech was bleeding heavily from a blow to the head, and there was a bloody sledgehammer on the floor near her. Emergency medical responders arrived and tended to Czech before they declared her dead at the scene. A sheriff’s deputy identified DeLong as the suspected attacker. DeLong said to a man at the business “something to the effect of, ‘I hit her with your hammer. She is by your toolbox. She is gone,’ ” the complaint read. Sheriff’s deputies reviewed surveillance video inside the business and saw DeLong walk from his workstation to Czech’s, grab a sledgehammer and swing it. The victim was out of view of the camera. DeLong‘s swings indicated that he targeted her once while she was standing and four more times after she fell to the floor. After his arrest, DeLong confessed to killing Czech. He said he didn’t like her and had been “planning to kill [her] for some time,” the complaint continued.
