January 20, 2005

Deacon: Hudson priest feared suicidal

WISCONSIN
Star Tribune

Randy Furst, Star Tribune
January 20, 2005

Three days before the Rev. Ryan Erickson killed himself, police in Hurley, Wis., were worried that the priest was suicidal and gave a church deacon Erickson's guns, the deacon said in an interview on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Hudson Police Chief Richard Trende said that Erickson, who was being questioned in a 2002 double murder at a Hudson funeral home, also was "being investigated for potential criminal allegations involving minors."

Trende said further that Erickson, 31, knew details about the crime scene that had not been made public, drove a car similar to the one seen at the funeral home that day and appeared to be the same stature as a man who got into the car. The police chief said that the man who got into the car was wearing a T-shirt and that Erickson was known to wear a T-shirt under his cleric's garb.

Erickson was a priest at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Hudson from 2000 to 2003, and had been transferred to a church in Ladysmith, Wis., and then to St. Mary of the Seven Dolors Church in Hurley in 2004.

Posted by kshaw at January 20, 2005 06:52 AM