By Stephen J. Lee
Herald Staff Writer

Like Dru Sjodin, Russell Turcotte disappeared from Grand Forks.

Like Dru, Russell last was heard from on a telephone call to a loved one.

Like Dru, Russell had a mother and father and loved ones and friends who by the next day worried that something bad had happened.

And like Dru, Russell had people who cared who contacted Grand Forks police the next day to say something was wrong, that their child was missing.

Like Dru's parents, Russell Turcotte's parents are divorced and live in different towns.

But that's where the similarities begin to diverge.

Russell last was heard from July 13, 2002, from a truckstop in Grand Forks; he was on the telephone to his mother, Linda Flynn, who was in his hometown of Wolf Point, Mont. She promised to wire him money the next day to Grand Forks so he could finish his hitchhiking trip faster by bus to make a wedding in Montana.

But the money was never picked up, and Russell was never heard from again.

Dru's case became a criminal case and a suspected abduction within 12 hours of its being reported to police. Within a day or so, hundreds of volunteers were searching fields near Grand Forks and Crookston for her.

But in Russell's case, it took months for the family to convince law enforcement to mount a search. And it never involved 1,700 volunteer searchers joining 100 or more law enforcement officers from 21 federal, state and local agencies, like the search Wednesday for Dru.

When Russell's family mounted their own search, using a Texas outfit and pleading with Grand Forks police, the police finally became involved in October last year, three months after Russell disappeared.

But the search involved only a few law enforcement officers and a couple of dozen volunteer searchers. Instead of the dozens of news reporters from national and regional companies and regular coverage on national TV shows, Russell's case attracted only fleeting news media attention. Russell Turcotte's disappearance took a long time to become a search. He was 19 when he disappeared.

Bringing it back

Flynn said when she first called police July 14, a dispatcher, when learning Russell's age, chuckled and told her to wait a few more days.

She then was told to file a missing person report through her local police agency, in Wolf Point, Flynn said.

That meant Grand Forks police did not have primary jurisdiction, which didn't help, she said.

It wasn't until Nov. 2, 2002, that a farmer hauling cattle accidentally found Russell's remains in a tree row near U.S. Highway 2, near Devils Lake, about 60 miles west of Grand Forks.

Dru's case brought it back for Russell's family.

"Immediately, on hearing of her disappearance, it was like someone kicked me in the stomach," said Bill Turcotte, Russell's father, who lives in Chinook, Mont. "It brought back all of the feelings from when Russell was missing. We are feeling bad for Dru's parents and voice our support for them and add our prayers for them."

But he was struck by differences in the cases.

"When they reported Dru missing, law enforcement was right on it. That was great for the family," Turcotte said. "It never happened for my son. They didn't respond at all. It bothers me that we never got that courtesy and response."

Grand Forks Police Chief John Packett said he sympathizes with Russell Turcotte's family, as with any family who loses a child.

If the circumstances had been the same in Turcotte's case, and police knew the same information, the response would have been similar, Packett said.

Turcotte's family isn't the only one struck by the massive outpouring of support for Sjodin's family, said Lt. Byron Sieber of the Grand Forks Police Department. "Anyone around the country who has lost a child, and has been watching this, would ask, 'Why wasn't this done for my child?'"

Packett said the case is unprecedented in his experience in terms of the support from other law enforcement agencies, the volunteer turnout and the news media focus.

Sieber points out that there are some unusual facts in the Sjodin case that have grabbed the nation's attention.

"She was young, female and attractive, and she was shopping at a mall we all use. This could happen to any of us," Sieber said.

The abrupt interruption of her cell phone call with her boyfriend, as she cried, "Oh my God," at the time she is thought to have been kidnapped by Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr., adds frightening drama to Sjodin's case, Sieber said.

And the cell phone signal tracked to a relatively small area between Crookston and Grand Forks gave a shape to the investigation most missing persons cases don't have, Sieber said.

Lifestyle, race?

Russell Turcotte's vagabond lifestyle, being often on the road, hitchhiking, made it more difficult for law enforcement and the public to be certain that he was missing or harmed, and not just traveling.

"They just acted like this was a little hippie kid who wandered off, and we told them that isn't the case," Turcotte said. "Why they wouldn't take us serious but took everyone else in this case dead serious the minute she wasn't there."

Bill Turcotte also thinks that the fact that Russell was an American Indian, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewas in North Dakota, like his father and siblings, affected the search for his son.

Linda Flynn is an enrolled member of the Assiniboine Sioux tribe in Wolf Point.

"What is different about Russell's disappearance and subsequent murder, other than our son is obviously Native American, and we are also," Turcotte said. "Now, you have a blond-haired, blue-eyed white girl. Where is the justice? Where is the equality? It doesn't seem to be there."

His son had no governors speaking out on his behalf, Turcotte said. North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty both have spoken much about the tragedy of the Sjodin case.

His family received a free meal or two in the truckstop where Russell last was seen. And a billboard company donated a sign for months. And they expressed gratitude for all the help they received.

Sjodin's family also has expressed thanks for all the help, which has included being put up at the Hilton Garden Inn and having meals paid for. UND and the city of Grand Forks have joined in the effort to help pay the family's costs, city officials have said.

Russell's parents emphasize that they think the Sjodin family deserves all the support they receive.

"We were amazed at the difference in turnout," Bill Turcotte said. "We hope maybe we taught them something, the fact that they didn't get right out and look for Russell, and then later found out maybe they should have. I hope they did learn something from what they didn't do for my son Russell."

Now, for Russell's family, the waiting is to find who killed him and left him in a lonely North Dakota tree row.

"I'm going to always try to be optimistic about finding who killed him," Flynn said. "We will do all that we can to make sure that happens, somewhere, in some fashion. We just won't give up. It's been a fight from the beginning, because he was worth it. He was our son."