Jay Edward Ostrem now faces three counts of first-degree murder in the same county where he worked as a sheriff’s investigator
Turner County Sheriff’s Office
Jay Edward Ostrem in mugshot from May 2024.
The 911 call came through the small South Dakota county dispatch center on Monday, May 27 at 9:44 p.m.
The man, who identified himself as Zach Frankus, told police that their neighbor fatally shot his brother with a shotgun.
Then, still during the conversation, he said he had been shot.
“Shortly after he reported he had been shot; the man stopped communicating with the Dispatcher,” Special Agent Jon Basche of South Dakota’s Division of Criminal Investigation later wrote in a probable cause statement obtained by PEOPLE.
When investigators arrived at 1031 Main Street in Centerville, SD, an officer observed a man leaving the residence.
Law enforcement officials later identified that man as the city’s former mayor, Jay Edward Ostrem. The 64-year-old also worked as a sheriff’s investigator in Turner County, where he now faces murder charges.
Elisa Page/Argus Leader/AP
Jay Edward Ostrem (far left) formerly served as Turner County Sheriff Investigator, May 16, 2009.
When he was stopped by an officer that evening, Ostrem told him, according to the arrest affidavit, that “he had a gun in his pocket.”
Investigators recovered that gun and claim they found an automatic rifle on the ground nearby, as well as “spent shell casings and at least one spent rifle casing” in his possession.
His arresting officer said the former politician smelled of alcohol, according to the affidavit.
Three men were found dead in the home.
Ostrem is charged with three counts of first-degree murder for the fatal shootings of Zachary Ryan Frankus, 21, and his brother Paul Wyland Frankus, 26, as well as Timothy E. Richmond, 35, according to the complaint obtained by PEOPLE.
Just a few houses away, at 1100 Main Street, investigators found a female relative of Ostrem’s at the home, according to the affidavit.
The family member told investigators that on Thursday, May 23, one of the neighbors came over while the former mayor was sleeping and that the two had been drinking alcohol. According to the affidavit, she told police that the man had sexually assaulted her.
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She also told investigators that earlier that evening she told the former mayor about the alleged assault, and, she said, according to the affidavit, he “got up and left the house in a rage.”
She claimed to officers that he didn’t say anything to her when he left and that she didn’t know where he was going or if he was armed when he left the house, the affidavit said.
She noted that the former mayor had previously worked in law enforcement and said he had weapons in his home, and “possibly in his vehicle,” according to the affidavit.
Tony Mangan of the South Dakota Attorney General confirmed to PEOPLE that as of Tuesday, May 28, Ostrem was being held on a $1 million cash-only bond.
His online roster at the Minnehaha County Jail shows the former mayor was booked into the jail at 7:09 a.m. Tuesday under inmate number 2519480. His online records show he is being held without bond.
The Turner County South Dakota clerk confirmed to PEOPLE that Ostrem will make his first court appearance at 4 p.m. CDT on May 28 in the mall city of Vermillion, SD, at the Clay County Courthouse.
He did not have an attorney listed at the time of the phone call.
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