Accused Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter extracted eyeballs from corpses for a living
Accused Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter's most recent job was extracting eyeballs from corpses at a funeral home, according to a pal.
Boelter — a 57-year-old married dad who allegedly murdered Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and wounded another Minnesota pol and his wife early Saturday — was carrying out his gruesome extraction work as part of an organ donation program, said the friend and sometime roommate David Carlson.
'I knocked on his door, and I said, 'Hey Vance, are you there?' ' Carlson recalled of his interaction with the accused killer around 7 p.m. Friday — just hours before Boelter unleashed his carnage.
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3 Alleged Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter extracted eyeballs from corpses for a living.
HANDOUT/RAMSEY COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
'He goes, 'Yeah, I'm in bed, and I'm trying to get some rest for work,'' Carlson said from the home in north Minneapolis where Boelter rented a room from him.
'He'd always said, 'I need rest for work so I'm sharp' because he was extracting eyeballs. You gotta be sharp for that,' Carlson said.
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It wasn't unusual for Boelter — who once worked in the food industry and also as a manager at a 7-Eleven — to go to bed so early so he could be on call for work.
Boelter was on call for 12 hours between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. on the night he allegedly murdered the Hortmans at their Brooklyn Park home and tried to assassinate Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in nearby Champlin.
3 Boelter is accused of murdering Minnesota Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband.
Hennepin County Sheriff's Office/AFP via Getty Images
The alleged assassin had taken courses in mortuary science in 2023 and 2024 at an Iowa community college, a rep for Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) told Local 5.
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It isn't known whether Boelter carried out the mortuary science courses in person or online. Both are offered by DMACC, the representative said, citing federal privacy laws.
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3 Hortman was killed in her Brooklyn Park home along with her husband.
Minnesota House HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Boelter has not been a student at DMACC since 2024, the rep added.
He was working for a funeral home in Savage, a southern suburb of Minneapolis, before leaving his job voluntarily in February, his former employer said, without elaborating.
'We would like to extend our thoughts and condolences to the families of Rep. Hortman and Sen. Hoffman,' Metro First Call funeral home said in a statement to KARE 11 after Boelter's arrest. 'This is devastating news for all involved. As far as Vance Boelter is concerned, he worked for our company from August 28, 2023, until he voluntarily left on February 20, 2025,'
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