To place an obituary, please include the information from the obituary checklist below in an email to obits@pioneerpress.com. There is no option to place them through our website. Feel free to contact our obituary desk at 651-228-5263 with any questions.
General Information:
Your full name,
Address (City, State, Zip Code),
Phone number,
And an alternate phone number (if any)
Obituary Specification:
Name of Deceased,
Obituary Text,
A photo in a JPEG or PDF file is preferable, TIF and other files are accepted, we will contact you if there are any issues with the photo.
Ad Run dates
There is a discount for running more than one day, but this must be scheduled on the first run date to apply.
If a photo is used, it must be used for both days for the discount to apply, contact us for more information.
Policies:
Verification of Death:
In order to publish obituaries a name and phone number of funeral home/cremation society is required. We must contact the funeral home/cremation society handling the arrangements during their business hours to verify the death. If the body of the deceased has been donated to the University of Minnesota Anatomy Bequest Program, or a similar program, their phone number is required for verification.
Please allow enough time to contact them especially during their limited weekend hours.
A death certificate is also acceptable for this purpose but only one of these two options are necessary.
Guestbook and Outside Websites:
We are not allowed to reference other media sources with a guestbook or an obituary placed elsewhere when placing an obituary in print and online. We may place a website for a funeral home or a family email for contact instead; contact us with any questions regarding this matter.
Obituary Process:
Once your submission is completed, we will fax or email a proof for review prior to publication in the newspaper. This proof includes price and days the notice is scheduled to appear.
Please review the proof carefully. We must be notified of errors or changes before the notice appears in the Pioneer Press based on each day’s deadlines.
After publication, we will not be responsible for errors that may occur after final proofing.
Online:
Changes to an online obituary can be handled through the obituary desk. Call us with further questions.
Payment Procedure:
Pre-payment is required for all obituary notices prior to publication by the deadline specified below in our deadline schedule. Please call 651-228-5263 with your payment information after you have received the proof and approved its contents.
Credit Card: Payment accepted by phone only due to PCI (Payment Card Industry) regulations
EFT: Check by phone. Please provide your routing number and account number.
Cash: Accepted at our FRONT COUNTER Monday – Friday from 8:00AM – 3:30PM
Rates:
The minimum charge is $162 for the first 10 lines.
Every line after the first 10 is $12.20.
If the ad is under 10 lines it will be charged the minimum rate of $162.
On a second run date, the lines are $8.20 per line, starting w/ the first line.
For example: if first run date was 20 lines the cost would be $164.
Each photo published is $125 per day.
For example: 2 photos in the paper on 2 days would be 4 photo charges at $500.
Deadlines:
Please follow deadline times to ensure your obituary is published on the day requested.
Hours
Deadline (no exceptions)
Ad
Photos
MEMORIAM (NON-OBITUARY) REQUEST
Unlike an obituary, Memoriam submissions are remembrances of a loved one who has passed. The rates for a memoriam differ from obituaries.
Please call or email us for more memoriam information
Please call 651-228-5280 for more information.
HOURS: Monday – Friday 8:00AM – 5:00PM (CLOSED WEEKENDS and HOLIDAYS)
Please submit your memoriam ad to memoriams@pioneerpress.com or call 651-228-5280.
A 62-year-old man was sentenced Monday to eight months in the Washington County Jail after authorities found child sexual abuse material on his laptop while investigating a report that he molested a teen boy at his Newport apartment in 2021.
Davyd M. Bryan Delving-Thompson, now of St. Paul, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in October that included the dismissal of a second-degree criminal sexual conduct charge in exchange for admitting to four counts of possession of child pornography.
Washington County District Judge Siv Mjanger accepted the agreement, but gave Delving-Thompson five more months in jail after he violated terms of his conditional release from jail after his plea. A two-and-a-half year prison term was stayed in favor of five years of supervised probation. He was given credit for just over three months in custody already served after his arrest.
According to the criminal complaint, a man reported in August 2021 that his two sons responded to an ad on Craigslist for a photo shoot and one of them — a 13-year-old — became a victim of sexual abuse.
The boy’s adult brother said he had exchanged emails with a man, whom authorities later identified as Delving-Thompson, about the online ad. The brother said he and his brother met the man, who went by “Michael,” at his apartment building in the 2300 block of Hastings Avenue in Newport.
Once in his living room, Delving-Thompson used his cellphone to take pictures of the brothers, who had their shirts off and were wearing swim trunks and underwear. Delving-Thompson “wanted them to pretend they were at the beach,” the complaint said.
They then went to his bedroom, where the brothers laid down with their backs to each other. Delving-Thompson closed the blinds for privacy. He rubbed the boy’s arm “to calm him down” and then his back, chest and legs, the complaint said. He then allegedly touched the boy’s penis.
The boy told Delving-Thompson that he wanted to go back to the living room and put on his shirt, but he asked the boy not to. In a hallway, Delving-Thompson asked the boy if he could touch his penis again, but the boy refused and Delving-Thompson “did it anyway,” the complaint said.
Delving-Thompson gave $300 to the brothers, who then left.
Investigators searched Delving-Thompson’s apartment and seized a cell phone, tablet computer and laptop computer. Digital forensic analysis revealed the laptop had four photos and two videos of prepubescent boys and girls doing sexual acts. The photos were determined to be child sexual abuse material, identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
In December, two months after Delving-Thompson entered his guilty plea, he violated terms of the judge’s conditional release order by using the internet and a chat group, according to prosecutors. An arrest warrant was issued and he was taken into custody on Aug. 13.
Conditions of his probation include following recommendations of a psychosexual evaluation, no pornography and no contact with minors. After probation, he must register as a predatory offender for five years.
Originally Published: September 23, 2025 at 5:47 PM CDT