A Minnesota woman will not face additional jail time for assisting her boyfriend in transporting a dismembered murder victim in a tote bag, authorities say.
Alexis Marion Elling, 24, pleaded guilty to aiding an offender and accessory after the fact in Rodney Pendegayosh Jr.’s 2023 death, according to court records. Elling spent nearly a year in jail for assisting her boyfriend, 23-year-old Bradley Allen Weyaus Jr., in moving Pendegayosh’s body from a home in Isle, about 100 miles north of Minneapolis. She also helped him get rid of a shotgun case.
Elling admitted that she was aware her boyfriend had murdered Pendegayosh and that the body was in the tote bag they were transporting. She tracked the bag for two days, according to prosecutors. Pendegayosh’s body was later discovered along a snow-covered road. As part of the plea agreement, the judge stayed Elling’s 57-month jail sentence as long as she followed the terms of her probation, which included not using alcohol or drugs. She received credit for the 324 days she had already served in jail.
According to court records, Weyaus was sentenced last month to 306 months in prison, or 25 years and six months, for Pendegayosh’s death. Weyaus pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder.
In a sentencing memorandum, Weyaus’ attorney attributed his behavior in part to his Native American heritage.
“Bradley Allen Weyaus, Jr., was born into a life and legacy that were not of his choosing. His legacy is shaped by historical and generational trauma, systemic neglect, and the long-term harms of colonization and forced displacement experienced by Native American communities, including his own,” his lawyer wrote.
A psychiatrist noted that, like many American Indians, he experienced depression, PTSD, and trauma-related distress.
According to the memo, he experienced instability throughout his life and witnessed his mother being abused by his stepfather. Weyaus witnessed his grandmother stab his mother when he was 10 years old and was later raised in foster homes, where he was also abused, according to the memo. As a result, he began using drugs and alcohol, according to his attorneys.
“Sleeping inside Bradley Weyaus are fragments of traumas too great to be resolved in one generation,” according to his lawyer. “This is the story of Bradley Weyaus, a young Native American man who after a childhood and adolescence marked by repeated abuse, individual trauma, and generational trauma fell into the iron grip of meth and turned to drug dealing to support his addiction and ease his trauma.”
According to authorities, the defendants believed Pendegayosh, 25, provided Elling’s brother with a lethal combination of fentanyl and methamphetamine. Officials stated that the couple’s crime was not typical.
“This whole thing is truly bizarre,” Mille Lacs County Sheriff Kyle Burton said in a news conference when authorities announced the charges. “This body was moved multiple places for a period of possibly up to a week before the discovery was made.”
In March 2023, a public works maintenance crew collecting garbage discovered Pendegayosh’s remains stuffed into a tote bag tied with bungee cords and tape along a snowy highway.
“They see what they believe to be a severed human foot,” the sheriff stated. They closed the tote and called the cops.
On his way to the scene, an officer spotted a white Saturn believed to be driven by Weyaus. Weyaus fled and managed to avoid capture for some time. The officer eventually found the vehicle, which was empty but stuck in a driveway. The homeowners pointed out the suspect, who was hiding in a camper trailer on their property. The arrest followed. Authorities discovered a hacksaw, hammer, and black tape that matched the tape found on the tote in Weyaus’ duffel bag.
Other evidence pointed to the couple. Although there appeared to be no gun, the suspect vehicle contained a spent shotgun shell. Investigators discovered a bloody carpet, gloves, and a hardware store receipt in the dumpster at the suspect’s apartment, along with Pendegayosh’s ID and credit card.
The sheriff stated that surveillance video shows the suspects carrying the tote bag from the apartment and loading it into a black Chevrolet Impala a few days before the body was discovered.
