2 days ago
Rochester woman receives stayed sentence for role in murder of man whose remains were found in tote
A 24-year-old woman has been sentenced for her role in the murder of an Isle, Minnesota, man whose partial remains were found in a tote in 2023, according to court records filed on Friday.
Alexis Elling, of Rochester, Minnesota, was given a 57-month sentence for aiding an offender, accomplice after the fact, which will be stayed for five years. According to the sentencing order, Elling will be on probation for those five years, and at least 2/3 of that sentence must be spent in prison. She pleaded guilty to the charge in February 2024.
On March 21, 2023, public works employees in Kathio Township, Minnesota, near Mille Lacs Lake, found a tote bound with bungee cords and industrial tape that had human remains inside. The remains were later identified as 25-year-old Rodney Pendegayosh Jr., of Isle, Minnesota.
Pendegayosh's parents had reported him missing the day before the tote was found.
According to charges, Elling's then-boyfriend, Bradley Allen Weyaus, of Isle, contacted Elling's roommate for a ride on March 19, 2023. When the roommate arrived at the home that Weyaus asked her to meet him at, Weyaus and Elling removed the tote from the residence and put it into the roommate's vehicle.
When contacted by police, Elling allegedly admitted that, while she did not help place Pendegayosh's body in the container, she did help move it, knowing that his body was inside. Charges say she also admitted to moving a gun case, and said that a fake fingernail that was found inside the tote belonged to her.
Charges say shortly after the tote was discovered on March 21, an investigator driving to the scene observed a white Saturn, similar to one associated with Weyaus, 21, heading in the same direction. He refused to pull over for the investigator and allegedly drove away at a high rate of speed.
Law enforcement later located the vehicle at a rural property with several buildings near Southport Road in Mille Lacs County, according to court documents. Police say a resident of the property told officers the car had been driven by Weyaus. Officers arrested Weyaus, who had been hiding in one of the buildings on the property, and allegedly recovered two duffel bags containing a hammer, a hacksaw and industrial tape consistent with the tape on the tote.
Charges say investigators allegedly found several items in the trash of a home Weyaus had been staying at, including pieces of carpet with what appeared to be blood stains on them and Pendegayosh's identification card cut into two pieces.
Inside Weyaus' vehicle, police say they discovered a spent shotgun shell. Pendegayosh's throat area contained "several pellets of a type found in buckshot shotgun shells."
Weyaus was sentenced in July 2025 to more than 25 years in prison for second-degree murder.
Officials have said that the motive for the murder had to do with Elling's brother and Pendegayosh's alleged involvement in his fentanyl overdose earlier in 2023.
The video above originally aired on March 28, 2023.
