Woman Helps Boyfriend Haul Body in Tote Bag, Avoids More Jail Time

The Case of the Disembodied Body in a Tote Bag

A woman from Minnesota will not face additional jail time for her role in helping her boyfriend move a dismembered murder victim in a tote bag, according to authorities. Alexis Marion Elling, 24, pleaded guilty to aiding an offender and being an accessory after the fact in the 2023 death of Rodney Pendegayosh Jr. Court records show that Elling spent nearly a year in jail for assisting her boyfriend, Bradley Allen Weyaus Jr., 23, in moving Pendegayosh’s body from a home in Isle, about 100 miles north of Minneapolis. She also helped him dispose of a shotgun case.

Elling admitted that she knew her boyfriend had murdered Pendegayosh and that the body was in the tote bag they were moving. Prosecutors stated that she kept track of the bag for two days. Authorities later recovered Pendegayosh’s body along a snowy road. As part of a plea agreement, a judge stayed the 57-month jail sentence as long as Elling complies with the terms of her probation, which include abstaining from alcohol and drugs. She was given credit for the 324 days she already served in jail.

The Sentence of the Primary Perpetrator

Bradley Allen Weyaus Jr. was sentenced last month to 306 months in prison—equivalent to 25 years and six months—for the death of Pendegayosh. Weyaus pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder. In a sentencing memorandum, his attorney attributed his actions in part to his Native American heritage.

“Bradley Allen Weyaus, Jr., was born into a life and legacy not of his own choosing. His legacy is shaped by historical and generational trauma, systemic neglect, and the lasting harms of colonization and forced displacement suffered by Native American communities, including his own,” his lawyer wrote. A psychiatrist noted that like many American Indians, he suffered from depression, PTSD, and trauma-related distress.

Weyaus experienced instability throughout his life and witnessed his mother being abused by his stepfather. At age 10, he saw his grandmother stab his mom and was later raised in foster homes where he also suffered abuse, according to the memo. As a result, he turned to drugs and alcohol, his attorneys wrote.

The Trauma Behind the Crime

“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,” his attorney wrote. “Sleeping inside Bradley Weyaus are fragments of traumas too great to be resolved in one generation.”

Authorities have said that the defendants believed that the 25-year-old Pendegayosh dealt Elling's brother a fatal mixture of fentanyl and meth. Officials described the couple's crime as anything but typical.

“This whole thing is truly bizarre,” Mille Lacs County Sheriff Kyle Burton said during a news conference when charges were brought. “This body was moved multiple places for a period of possibly up to a week before the discovery was made.”

Discovery of the Body

A public works maintenance crew collecting garbage discovered Pendegayosh’s remains stuffed into a tote bag bound by bungee cords and tape along a snowy highway in March 2023. They initially saw what they believed to be a severed human foot and closed the tote before calling the police.

An officer on the way to the scene spotted a white Saturn believed to be driven by Weyaus. Weyaus fled, and for a time, eluded capture. The officer eventually found the vehicle empty but stuck in a driveway. The homeowners pointed out the suspect hiding in a camper trailer on the property. The arrest followed. In Weyaus’ duffel bag, authorities discovered a hacksaw, hammer, and black tape similar to the tape found on the tote.

Other evidence pointed toward the couple. There was a spent shotgun shell in the suspect vehicle, although apparently no gun. Investigators found a bloody carpet, gloves, and a hardware store receipt in the dumpster at the apartment where the suspect lived—as well as Pendegayosh’s ID and credit card.

The sheriff said surveillance video shows the suspects carrying the tote bag out of the apartment and loading it into a black Chevrolet Impala a few days before police discovered the body.